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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 



*£ 



Copyright, 1912 
By H. M. Caldwell Co. 

All rights reserved 



THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. 8IMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. 



§CI.A319877 



CONTENTS 



Foreword 

The Struggle for Personal Freedom 

The Beginnings of Personality 

What Personality Is 

The Mastery of the Affections 

The Training of the Mind 

The Education of the Will 

The Realization of Self - conscious 

NESS .... 

The Cost of Personality 

The Great Personality 

The Sub - conscious Life 

Through Man to God . 

The Inner Light 

The Divine - Human Life 

The Permanence of Personality 




vn 

1 

35 

74 

107 

139 

173 

207 

247 
282 
324 
358 
394 
432 
466 



FOREWORD 

It is true, wonderfully true, that 
" the moon is rising again and the tide 
of dreams once more floods the naked 
shingles of the world." The old star- 
lit mystery of things is coming back 
and life is once more filled full of mean- 
ing and significance. It is all the more 
wonderful because, for so long now, 
such views might well have seemed in- 
credible. But the very Science, that 
since the time of Charles Darwin has 
seemed to so many to be taking all the 
glory out of the sky and all the divine- 
ness out of life, is to-day becoming 
more and more mystical; or, if this 
term is objectionable to some, less and 
vii 



FOREWORD 

less hostile towards the things of the 
spirit. Every day this Science is con- 
firming more clearly man's ancient 
faith that he is a Spirit, that he does 
not live by bread alone, and that the 
meaning of his life is something mys- 
teriously sacred, radiant and exalted 
beyond all mortal telling. On every 
hand the literature and art that is find- 
ing the widest acceptance is seen to be 
touched in some degree with this new 
transcendentalism, and we grow more 
and more indifferent to, and more and 
more impatient of the literature or the 
art that ignores the soul and places no 
emphasis on the life of the spirit. It 
is only a superficial observation that 
finds this age prosaic and materialistic. 
Actually, there has never been a time 
w T hen the sense of the mysterious sig- 
nificance of man's destiny in the Uni- 
verse has so widely permeated the 
world at large. 

viii 



FOREWORD 

The decay of the outworn forms of 
religious belief does not signify spiri- 
tual decay, as so many timorous folk 
would have us believe. On the con- 
trary, it is a sign of spiritual renais- 
sance, of increased vigor of religious 
vitality, too potent to be longer con- 
fined in the old formulas and so, forced 
to overflow into the larger moulds of 
science and philosophy, of literature 
and art, thus tending to spiritualize 
the general consciousness of men as, 
through purely ecclesiastical channels, 
it has never been able to do. 

The ancient philosopher Diogenes is 
said to have spent his time in searching 
for a man. To-day, not the Philoso- 
pher alone but the average man is ear- 
nestly bent upon a search for himself. 
The modern man is not content to be 
lost in the labyrinth of nerves and 
nerve functions; he is not willing to 
be bound fast in the machinery of 
ix 



FOREWORD 

habit; he will not consent to disappear 
in the ceaseless whirl of the automatic 
wheel of life. It is borne in upon him 
as never before that he is something 
greater than he knows, and he is ear- 
nestly bent on finding out what that 
" Something " is. A rapidly increasing 
number of men and women in these 
feverish, hurrying, distracting days, 
are no longer satisfied " just to go 
around with the crowd." They are 
asking themselves the old, yet always 
new questions: What am I? Why am 
I here? What is my destiny? And 
they realize that upon the answer to 
these questions hangs, for themselves 
at least, the truth, the beauty, the effi- 
ciency and the " worth whileness " of 
life. It is because the hunger of the 
heart for clearer light on the meaning 
of human life and destiny, so clearly 
apparent to-day, is the universal hun- 
ger, that the study of human Person- 



FOREWORD 

ality is claiming the earnest attention 
of all thoughtful minds. 

Some twenty years ago many will 
remember the vivid impression made 
upon our minds by the publication of 
Henry Drummond's book, " Natural 
Law in the Spiritual World." It was 
during our student days, when we were 
hanging in mid-air between a Chris- 
tianity on one side and a Science on 
the other, that " would not come to- 
gether." In spite of the defects and 
limitations of the book, it showed us 
that the two worlds could go together 
after all; that science and religion were 
not two discordant languages, bring- 
ing irreconcilable accounts of the na- 
ture of things, and that all that we had 
learned or could learn by studying na- 
ture only added to the riches of the 
knowledge of God. When Drum- 
mond wrote his book the prevailing 
problems were biological. We were 
xi 



FOREWORD 

asking how the old doctrines of sin and 
salvation and immortality could fit 
into a system of evolution. That prob- 
lem no longer exists for most thought- 
ful persons to-day. Christianity has 
conquered again, though in the strug- 
gle its old forms have been profoundly 
transformed. Since Drummond's time 
the problem has shifted. It is no longer 
biological but rather psychological. 
We are discovering that every article 
of faith, every cherished conviction, all 
familiar ideals must finally submit 
themselves to a psychological test. 
Religion has survived modern geology, 
and later biology, and now the crucial 
question is, whether it can stand the 
scrutinizing test of modern psychology. 
It is because we believe most confi- 
dently that it can, and further, because 
we are convinced that the light thrown 
upon the meaning and destiny of man's 
life by modern psychology is leading 
xii 



FOREWORD 

to clearer vision of, and stronger faith 
in the realities of the life of the spirit, 
that we are led to the consideration of 
this vital theme. 

The greatest of all the sciences is the 
science of Psychology simply because 
it is the science of Man and not of 
things. All the wealth of thought and 
investigation and discovery that mod- 
ern psychology has contributed to this 
supreme object of study finds its ulti- 
mate end and meaning in the word Per- 
sonality. It is by far the greatest word 
in the history of the human mind. We 
shall not at this time attempt an analy- 
sis of the conception of personality, 
for that will come later. We need to 
be reminded, however, that Personal- 
ity, whatever we may mean by it or 
however we define it, is the key that 
unlocks the deeper mysteries of Science 
and Philosophy, of History and Lit- 
erature, of Art and Religion, of all 
xiii 



FOREWORD 

man's Ethical and Social relation- 
ships. 

As we turn the pages of man's first 
Bible, the Book of Nature, we read the 
marvelous story of the evolutionary 
process which has been apparent from 
the beginning. We trace the develop- 
ment of solar systems and the formation 
of worlds from the original star-dust of 
the Infinite Spaces. We follow the 
beginnings of life on our planet in its 
simplest forms, step by step through 
the vegetable and animal kingdoms un- 
til that wonderful time when man first 
makes his appearance. With redoub- 
led interest we trace the progress of 
" the romance of the ages " in human 
history. We see man climbing by slow, 
laborious steps out of barbarism and 
brutality, out of ignorance and super- 
stition, out of subjection and limita- 
tions of every kind. We note the be- 
ginnings and spread of civilizations, 
xiv 



FOREWORD 

the founding and development of gov- 
ernments, the creation of the arts and 
literature, the unfoldings of science 
and philosophy and religion, until at 
length we reach the full-fledged mod- 
ern man, splendid in his attainments, 
glorious in his self-mastery, limitless in 
his possibilities, — the inheritor of all 
the past, the promise of all the future. 
As we read the page of Science to-day 
we find everywhere the tendency to lay 
the supremest emphasis upon human 
personality as the only clue to the mean- 
ing of this wonderful evolutionary 
process. 

A generation or so ago the general 
trend of science was materialistic. It 
really taught the dethronement of per- 
sonality; its tendency led to the be- 
littling of the significance of individu- 
als; the individual was nothing, the 
race was everything. According to the 
then prevalent view, there was no per- 

XV 



FOREWORD 

manent significance in personality, 
there was no place for individual im- 
mortality. The individual lived his life 
and did his work and after a few brief 
fleeting years disappeared into noth- 
ingness while the race itself went on. 
But the study of human history and of 
psychology has tremendously altered 
this materialistic tendency, until to- 
day, living though we do in a scientific 
age, it is only now and then that we 
hear a voice raised in defence of the 
old materialistic hypothesis. 

In that little book by John Fiske, 
entitled " The Destiny of Man," after 
describing in graphic terms the course 
of evolution from the lowest forms of 
life to its higher forms, he says: 

" At length came a wonderful mo- 
ment — silent and unnoticed as are the 
beginnings of all great revolutions. 
Silent and unnoticed, even as the day 
of the Lord which cometh like a thief 
xvi 



FOREWORD 

in the night, there arrived that wonder- 
ful moment at which psychical changes 
began to be of more use than physical 
changes to the brute ancestor of Man. 
Through further ages of ceaseless 
struggle the profitable variations in this 
creature occurred oftener and oftener 
in the brain, and less often in other 
parts of the organism, until by and by 
the size of his brain had been doubled 
and its complexity of structure in- 
creased a thousand-fold, while in other 
respects his appearance was not so very 
different from that of his brother apes. 
The creation of Man is still the goal 
toward which nature tended from the 
beginning. Not the production of any 
higher creature, but the perfecting of 
Humanity, is to be the glorious con- 
summation of Nature's long and tedi- 
ous work. Thus we suddenly arrive at 
the conclusion that Man seems now, 
much' more clearly than ever, the chief 

xvii 



FOREWORD 

among God's creatures. On the prim- 
itive barbaric theory, which Mr. Dar- 
win has swept away, Man was suddenly 
flung into the world by the miraculous 
act of some unseen and incalculable 
Power acting from without ; and what- 
ever theology might suppose, no scien- 
tific reason could be alleged why the 
same incalculable Power might not at 
some future moment, by a similar mira- 
cle, thrust upon the scene some might- 
ier creature in whose presence Man 
would become like a sorry beast of 
burden. But he who has mastered the 
Darwinian theory, he who recognizes 
the slow and subtle process of evolu- 
tion as the way in which God makes 
things come to pass, must take a far 
higher view. He sees that in the deadly 
struggle for existence which has raged 
throughout countless aeons of time, the 
whole creation has been groaning and 
travailing together in order to bring 
xviii 



FOREWORD 

forth that last consummate specimen of 
God's handiwork, the Human Soul. 
Thus in the long series of organic be- 
ings, Man is the last; the cosmic proc- 
ess, having once evolved this master- 
piece, could thenceforth do nothing bet- 
ter than to perfect him." 

What is this, in other words, but 
simply the statement that the ultimate 
goal of this stupendous evolutionary 
process, which has been at work in the 
Universe from the beginning, is the 
development of the whole man, the 
true and deeper self, the human-divine 
personality? It cannot be read other- 
wise. The total result of all the scien- 
tific research, of all the wonderful dis- 
coveries of the last hundred years re- 
specting Man and his life here upon 
the earth, reveals as the goal and end 
of all evolution, the perfecting of the 
human personality. 

If Personality is the ultimate goal 
xix 



FOREWORD 

of evolution it is even more clearly ap- 
parent that it is likewise the key to the 
meaning of History. All the great 
movements of human history have re- 
volved around its great personalities. 
The alpha and omega of every his- 
torical problem is to be found at last 
in the personal equation. Carlyle's 
" Hero Worship " is written to illus- 
trate this fact. Its doctrine of great 
men as the real creators of history, the 
mighty forces that turn the tide of civi- 
lization, that fashion the channels 
through which human life finds newer 
and fresher and larger expression, is a 
doctrine that no number of Buckles, 
with their food and climate theories of 
human life, will ever be able to refute. 
The great personality is always the 
turning point in the progress of human 
history. How could one explain the 
history of nations and leave out the 
personalities of men like Julius Caesar, 

XX 



FOREWORD 

Attila the Hun, Charlemagne, Alfred 
the Great, Oliver Cromwell, George 
Washington, Thomas Jefferson or 
Abraham Lincoln? We are re-writing 
all our histories from this viewpoint: 
that the great personality gives the 
real clue to the deeper movements of 
history and to the progress of civiliza- 
tion. Without the pivotal personality 
in the critical events that have occurred 
in history, those events would be mean- 
ingless and inexplicable. What would 
the French Revolution mean and how 
could it be explained, apart from the 
personalities of Mirabeau, Marat, Dan- 
ton and Robespierre? How can one 
explain the reform movements in Eng- 
land during the 19th century, without 
the personality of the Earl of Shafts- 
buiy? In our own country, how could 
one account for the Civil War, or ex- 
plain its course, apart from the person- 
alities of Charles Sumner, Wendell 
xxi 



FOREWORD 

Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, 
Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abraham 
Lincoln? How can we understand the 
arousing of American womanhood to a 
new sense of its rights and its duties in 
the preservation of the American home, 
without the personality of Frances 
Willard? 

Human history, wherever one turns 
the page, revolves around its great 
personalities; and we understand the 
meaning of political revolutions, of so- 
cial and economic changes, of moral 
reform movements of any period, in 
just the measure that we gain clear in- 
sight into the ideals, spirit and motives 
of the great personalities of that par- 
ticular age. 

Nowhere is the significance of per- 
sonality so evident as in art, and no- 
where are its finer possibilities dis- 
played as in literature. Humanity 
makes a large contribution to every 
xxii 



FOREWORD 

piece of literature through several dif- 
ferent channels. First of all, there is 
the mysterious influence of race; then 
there is the subtle influence of the spirit 
of the age in which the author lives; 
there is also the constant and penetra- 
ting power of nature or natural envi- 
ronment. But that which gives the 
work pre-eminently its stamp as lit- 
erature, is the personality of the writer. 
Here we see that personality is the 
divinest thing in the world because it 
is the only creative thing, the only 
power that can bring to material al- 
ready existent a new idea of form and 
order. Through personality a divine 
force continually flows into the world's 
great literature, through personality 
new revelations of human life are made 
and new aspects and forms of beauty 
disclosed. Every powerful personality 
is an open channel through which new 
truth comes among men. Nowhere do 
xxiii 



FOREWORD 

we feel this more clearly than in litera- 
ture. Behind every book that leaves 
its impress upon our lives stands the 
Personality, without whom the book 
and its message is inexplicable. This 
is why we select only a few volumes 
from the great libraries and set them 
apart by themselves, such as the works 
of Sophocles, Dante, Shakespeare, 
Goethe, Moliere. We call these the 
truly great books because they are the 
actual expression of great personali- 
ties; into these writings has been 
poured forth the whole man, his height 
of vision, his depth of insight, his 
breadth of sympathy, his symmetry of 
character. These ripe and powerful 
minds have not rested in the expression 
of any single emotion, passion or ex- 
perience, but have compassed all ex- 
perience and made it tributary to the 
development of their own natures and 
the interpretation of universal life. 



FOREWORD 

This explains also the difference be- 
tween the inspirational books and the 
books of mere knowledge. The inspi- 
rational books are those into which 
living personality has been breathed, 
while the books of knowledge are the 
text books to which we go for facts, but 
never for inspiration. The books we 
turn to when the light of aspiration 
shines but dimly, and hope has well- 
nigh died, and the fires of the heart are 
burning low, are these books into which 
has gone the wealth of some rich per- 
sonality. The reason that so much of 
the current literature is of the ephem- 
eral class, is simply because within the 
writing there is not revealed the com- 
manding personality. As we are now 
speaking of personality, we are using 
the general term without attempting 
to define it, but we need to see and feel 
the deep instinct by which we all recog- 
nize the high place held by personality, 

XXV 



FOREWORD 

and the supreme influence it exerts in 
the world of thought and activity. 

In the realm of Art, whether it be 
music or painting or sculpture or archi- 
tecture, one finds again that he is every- 
where reading the deeper meaning of 
personality. The great art anywhere, 
the thrilling music, the inspiring paint- 
ings, the awe-compelling architecture 
or sculpture, are simply the concrete 
instances where some great personality 
has found full and rich expression. 
This is the reason why, among the many 
pictures in the world's galleries, there 
are some few we would love to possess. 
For this reason, among all the world's 
painters, there are a few truly great 
artists like Phidias or Michael Angelo 
or Raphael or Millet, who have at- 
tained to unquestioned renown. The 
music that lives on generation after 
generation, forever interpreting to 
man the uninterpretable and express- 
xxvi 



FOREWORD 

ing for him the inexpressible, is not 
the music that is simply faultless in its 
technique or harmony; it is rather the 
music that throbs and pulsates with the 
meaning and significance of the person- 
ality of the composer. 

Personality is no less the supreme 
fact in the history of Religion. At the 
mention of the religion of the Chinese, 
one thinks instantly of Confucius, or of 
the religion of India, one thinks of 
Buddha, or of Africa, one thinks of 
Mohammed. When we come to our 
own Christianity the personality of 
Jesus stands forth supreme. We are 
told that while there are millions of 
enrolled Buddhists in the world, there 
are probably very few who understand 
or know anything about the doctrines 
of Buddhism. The tie which binds 
these millions to this Old-World faith 
is the tie formed by the personality of 
its founder — the gentle Buddha. It 
xxvii 



FOREWORD 

can be shown beyond question that the 
distinctive contribution made by Chris- 
tianity to religion, is the personality of 
Jesus. Not our doctrines or creeds, 
our rites or ceremonies, our ecclesiasti- 
cal organizations or our ordinances, but 
the real living Jesus, is the center and 
source of the inspiration of Christian- 
ity. Would the Sermon on the Mount, 
or the Lord's Prayer, or the Golden 
Rule, or the matchless Parables of the 
Gospels furnish the inspiration or ex- 
ert the influence they do over multi- 
tudes of lives, if they were not in- 
breathed by the personality of him 
" who spake as never man spake? " 

Dr. Jowett has said that " in the fu- 
ture, morals will altogether be taught 
through biography." He doubtless 
means that it is not the ethical ideal, 
however high, taught in the abstract, 
it is not the moral principle, however 
vital, enunciated as a principle, but it 
xxviii 



FOREWORD 

is the ideal or the principle incarnate in 
living personalities that becomes con- 
tagious and effective in building moral 
character. It is Brierley who says, 
" Doctrine and dogma, whether theo- 
logic, social, or economic, left to its 
naked self, will moulder on the back 
shelves of libraries. To be powerful it 
must be incarnated. Create a living 
personality who incarnates the doc- 
trines and he will preach them to mil- 
lions." 

All Social relationships testify also 
to the supreme significance of person- 
ality. It is personality that gives the 
key and furnishes the clue to the mean- 
ing and possibilities of our relationships 
in human society. To be a Personal- 
ity is to be in relations. We can no 
more think of a personality in isolation, 
living its life apart, than we can think 
of life in a vacuum. Because we are 
intended to become Persons, in the deep, 
xxix 



FOREWORD 

true sense of the word, we cannot 
escape personal relationships as broad 
and as deep as humanity. In just the 
degree that we fulfill in ourselves the 
ideal meaning of personality, do we 
come into true and sympathetic rela- 
tions with " all kinds and conditions of 



men." 



Whence come our strongest convic- 
tions, our deepest faiths, our mightiest 
inspirations? From personal associa- 
tion. Personal contact and impression 
of character count more here than all 
argument. You find yourself respond- 
ing like a vibrating chord to the note 
of your friend. His faith and life be- 
come the surest ground for yours. You 
catch his conviction, his spirit, his pur- 
pose. It is the only way by which the 
world will ever be saved from selfish- 
ness and low ideals. 

Personality stands for two things, or 
reveals itself under two aspects, viz., 

XXX 



FOREWORD 

the uniqueness of the individual, and 
his universality. It means distinction 
from the Universe, and at the same 
time conscious involvement with it. In 
a sense every individual stands alone, 
must stand apart, must be not another, 
but himself. In another sense no indi- 
vidual can stand alone, for " we are all 
members one of another." Everything 
is related to everything else. As Emer- 
son used to say, " strike the rock with 
your hammer, and the jar is felt in 
Jupiter." Man is related to nature, to 
human society, to the Infinite; and 
every man knows it. But this conscious 
involvement with the Universe is alone 
made possible through man's personal- 
ity, and is meaningless without it. 

It is clear that into whatever region 
of thought we stray, whether it be phi- 
losophy or science or theology or litera- 
ture or art or social theory, we find the 
universe spelling out one word as its 
xxxi 



FOREWORD 

final meaning. It exists for persons. 
The personal life is the ultimate life. 
The personal interest is the ultimate in- 
terest. And that " far-off divine event 
to which the whole Creation moves " — 
the perfecting of human society, — is 
alone made possible as we, here and 
now, grow within ourselves this true 
personality. 

If this conception of life and its 
deeper meaning be true then, beyond 
question, Personality is the greatest 
thing in the world; for the realization 
of Personality means the completion of 
the divine plan for which the Universe 
exists, the fulfillment of our God-ap- 
pointed destiny,- and the perfecting of 
human Society. Is there any subject 
that should attract us more deeply? 
Are there any interests that should 
concern us more vitally than the great 
questions which cluster around the real 
meaning of our personal life? What 
xxxii 



FOREWORD 

is my life, after all? Whence has it 
proceeded? Whither is it tending? 
What are its possibilities? What is the 
meaning of consciousness? When we 
remember that all truth or revelation 
of any sort, that ever got into this 
world, came into it through human con- 
sciousness somewhere, do we not see 
how important it is that we should in- 
vestigate this thing we call conscious- 
ness and find out really what it means? 
Has it any laws? Can we find through 
it siny criterion of reality ? Does it give 
us an} r basis of right and wrong, of 
truth and error? Does our personal 
consciousness spring out of a deeper, 
universal consciousness? Are mind and 
soul, anything more than comforting 
words and may not the entire inner life 
finally reduce itself to brain vibration, 
set going b}^ ether vibrations? As we 
ask such questions we begin to realize 
that the thing of supremest importance 
xxxiii 



FOREWORD 

for every individual is to find out what 
it means to be a Person, what the in- 
herent nature and possibilities of per- 
sonality really are, and whether behind 
this physical body there is the deeper 
Self, the permanent personality? 

A few years ago an old manuscript 
was discovered containing some sayings 
of Jesus that had never heretofore 
come to light. Among them were these 
words: " Jesus saith: Let not him who 
seeks, cease until he finds, and when he 
finds he shall wonder, and wondering, 
he shall reach the Kingdom, and having 
reached the Kingdom, he shall rest." 

May these words express for us the 
spirit of earnest, honest, reverent in- 
quiry in which we set forth on our 
search after the deeper Self, the true 
Personality ! 



XXXIV 




THE STRUGGLE FOR PER- 
SONAL FREEDOM 

•ROM the beginning of human 
history the world has been in 
the process of preparation for 
this present Psychological 
Age. At no other time in the past 
could the Science of Man have held the 
supreme place that it occupies to-day. 
Since the dawn of science, man's eager 
thought has been turned outward 
toward the objective world of external 
fact. The stars and stones, the flowers 
and animals, man's own physical body, 
the institutions of society — such ob- 
jects have naturally claimed his chief 
attention. The so-called psychology of 
earlier times was purely speculative, 
1 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

revolving around the theory of knowl- 
edge, and showing little or no interest 
in the psychic or spiritual man himself. 
It is only quite recently that psychol- 
ogy has hegun to employ the experi- 
mental method, and give its attention 
to the deeper significance of man's per- 
sonal life. That is why we speak of 
it to-day as " the new psychology.'' 
Such a book, for example, as Mr. F. 
W. H. Meyers' monumental work, en- 
titled " Human Personality," could 
never have been written at any earlier 
period in man's development. 

Let us first trace the slow growth of 
the sense of the value of the Person, 
bringing us at last to an age which 
finds the ultimate meaning of life and 
of the universe, in nothing less than the 
full and complete freedom of person- 
ality. 

As we look back through the cen- 
turies, we find that the degree of clear- 
2 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

ness and completeness with which the 
significance of the personal life has 
been comprehended by different ages 
and races, furnishes an infallible indi- 
cation of their intellectual and moral 
development. Those races which have 
had but a partial grasp of it have 
halted in the march. Those ages which 
have failed to realize it clearly and de- 
cisively, have failed to make the high- 
est use of the materials at hand. The 
sure test of an advancing civilization is 
the steadily deepening sense of the 
value of the individual person. 

Nineteen hundred years ago Jesus, 
both in his personal attitude and 
throughout his teachings, proclaimed 
the sacred rights of man, merely as 
man. When he said that " the Sabbath 
was made for man and not man for the 
Sabbath," he set forth the principle 
that the State and the Church, the Con- 
stitution and the Bible, in fact society 
3 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

itself, existed for the sake of man, not 
man for them. If it be true that " the 
individual withers and the race is more 
and more," it may turn out that the 
higher value set upon the race is solely 
to emphasize the value of the individ- 
ual. The race has attained to new sig- 
nificance, only because of the deepened 
sense of the sacredness of the individ- 
uals who compose the race. 

Think of the slight value placed 
upon persons, as such, in the early 
dawn of history. Stand in imagination 
beside the great pyramids of Ancient 
Egypt. Here are the tombs of Kings, 
stupendous monuments not of monar- 
chical glory, but, to one who reflects at 
all, of the reckless waste of innumer- 
able human lives. Myriad slaves dug 
deep in the sands for the sake of rear- 
ing these tremendous piles, ignorant of 
everything save the stern necessity of 
yielding every last bit of strength in 
4 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

their bodies, and every least gleam of 
intelligence in their minds, to the inex- 
orable demand of the King. Up from 
the sands it rises, that huge bulk of 
stone, unmistakable testimony to the 
greatness of a Pharaoh, but also the 
indestructible evidence of the cheapness 
and abundance of human lives. The 
whole is the tomb of a monarch, but 
every stone of it is the tombstone of 
thousands who perished that this pile 
might rise. For scores of years a hun- 
dred thousand men toiled every day, on 
the roads, in the quarries, about the ma- 
chinery, on the walls, wageless, half 
fed, overworked, scourged with the 
lash, dizzy, sick and exhausted. Death 
was welcomed as a sweet relief from 
the tyranny under which they were op- 
pressed. 

From that day down until the dawn 
of the modern age, which we put at 
about the sixteenth century, two figures 
5 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

have loomed large upon the background 
of humanity, — the man on horseback, 
or the King, representing the fighting 
and therefore the ruling class; and the 
man with the book, or the Priest, repre- 
senting the religious class. These were 
the two leading personages until the 
close of the Middle Ages. The King 
demanded that all other men should 
work for him and fight for him; the 
Priest demanded that all men should 
think and believe as he dictated. For 
centuries man lived under the two-fold 
tyranny of a civil and a religious des- 
potism. Men as persons with individual 
rights were not recognized. They had 
no right either to work for themselves 
or think for themselves. The King 
claimed his power by divine right. He 
demanded the absolute allegiance of 
man, woman and child. He owned not 
only the earth but its inhabitants as 
well. The people themselves, meanly 
6 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

clad, bare-headed, oftentimes bare- 
footed, without any organization what- 
ever, could do nothing. They were 
helplessly in his power, he owned them 
body and soul. To criticize the King, 
was treason, and that meant the dun- 
geon and the headsman's axe. 

There was only one man who was the 
equal or the rival of the King during 
all this period, and that was the Priest, 
or the man with the book. He pro- 
fessed to have access to sources of 
power and authority that the King 
understood but vaguely. He presumed 
to hold the keys to heaven and hell. In 
the name of the Kingdom of heaven he 
demanded allegiance from the Kings of 
earth, and even these Kings were afraid 
to disregard his mandates. It was clear 
at least that he knew more than other 
men, for he alone had access to books. 
Books in those days were rare and pre- 
cious treasures. They were copied 
7 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

page by page by the slow labor of 
scribes. The only books were in manu- 
script form and therefore few. The 
only libraries were in the monasteries, 
or some of the palaces. The most of 
the nobility could not read. Even the 
Bible was open only to priests and 
scholars. Men, accordingly, had no al- 
ternative; they were compelled to de- 
pend for instruction upon the man with 
the book, and what he said they must 
accept, since they did not know enough 
to ask questions or dispute his state- 
ments. He told them about religion, 
of the duty of obedience and unques- 
tioning loyalty to the Church and State. 
Without books, because they did not 
know any better, they accepted it all 
as the word of God. It was the best 
they could do. To criticize the Priest 
or question the authority of the Church, 
was heresy, and that meant the dun- 
geon and the fires of the stake. 
8 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

The King and the Priest had many 
fierce disputes. As a matter of fact, 
most of the wars waged during the 
Middle Ages, were really wars waged 
between the Priest, represented by the 
Pope on one hand, and the King rep- 
resented by the Emperor on the other. 
The chess-board gives us a map of the 
medieval world, whereon the people, 
the great mass of humanity, are the 
pawns, of little value and limited move- 
ment; the knights, the bishops, the cas- 
tles, the kings and queens are the only 
important personages. 

This was the condition of things until 
the discovery of gunpowder and the in- 
vention of the art of printing. Then 
the world was turned upside down, and 
the new and modern age was ushered 
in. The man on horseback found him- 
self now confronted by the man with 
the gun, which was far more deadly 
than the old weapons and could pierce 
9 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

even the stoutest armor ever worn by 
the soldier of earlier times. The man 
with the book found that other people 
now had access to books, that the art of 
printing had made possible the circu- 
lation not only of the Bible, but of all 
kinds of facts and information hitherto 
unknown by the people. Men who had 
formerly accepted without doubt what- 
ever the Priest had said, were now be- 
ginning to ask questions. They found, 
as they read the pages of the Bible, that 
Jesus Christ was never on the side of 
the master, as the Priest had been tell- 
ing them; that he was a poor man, a 
carpenter by trade; that he mingled 
with the poor people, shared their lives, 
sat down to meat and drink not in 
Kings' houses but with publicans and 
harlots, the very outcasts of society. 
As his words were studied in the fresh- 
ness of that new day, and his meaning 
was understood, with all its implica- 
10 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

tions of liberty and fraternity, the Bible 
became the placard of a revolution, the 
greatest the world had ever seen, and 
whose end is not yet. 

The old regime of Church and State, 
the rule of Kings and Priests, made a 
hard fight of it, and the struggle is not 
yet over, but with the discovery of gun- 
powder and the invention of the art of 
printing, there came into conscious be- 
ing, democracy, fraternity, the rights of 
man, the possibilities of individual lib- 
erty, the right to think one's own 
thoughts and to live one's own life 
apart from the Priest or King. No 
wonder the historian calls it " the dawn- 
ing of a new era," for it marks the 
opening of the most momentous chap- 
ter in human history. 

There were other forces that contrib- 
uted their share to the inauguration of 
this new age. Columbus had sailed 
across the western sea and discovered a 
11 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

new continent, and people began to 
realize that Europe was simply a nar- 
row parish in the midst of a planet, 
which was far bigger than had ever 
been thought. It was about the same 
time that the studies of Copernicus 
taught men that even this whole earth 
suddenly grown so great, was as a bit 
of dust in the midst of a Universe whose 
vastness beggared all description. At 
first these new ideas seemed to belittle 
man and destroy religion. It certainly 
did destroy the old forms of religion, 
based on the Ptolemaic conception of 
the Universe, but after a time it began 
to occur to the more thoughtful that a 
living, thinking, loving human being is 
really greater than the whole material 
Universe. More generally than ever 
before it began to be seen that size and 
weight count for nothing in compari- 
son with personality. 

Thus, man found himself ushered not 
12 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

only into a new world of warfare and 
of books, he also found himself living 
in a new and for the first time Infinite 
Universe that was pulsating through- 
out with new and revolutionary ideas. 
In the old days, individuality — the 
right and duty of a human being to live 
his own life, to think his own unham- 
pered thought, to come to his own hon- 
est conclusion and to speak it out — 
had little or no place in either politics 
or religion. Even the philosophers 
treated it more as a theory, never 
dreaming what it could do once it be- 
came a realized fact. But when in the 
sixteenth century gunpowder and print- 
ing and Columbus and Copernicus were 
added together, the answer at the foot 
of the column was individuality, — the 
rights of man, the inviolable sacredness 
of the personal life. 

The German Reformation followed, 
under the sturdy monk, Martin Luther. 
13 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

During the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries there had been many signs of 
restlessness that gave promise of im- 
pending changes in religion, and when 
Luther, in his rugged strength, defied 
the ecclesiastical authorities of Rome, 
refusing to believe the things they had 
decreed, and claiming for himself and 
for every man the right to interpret the 
Bible according to the dictates of one's 
own mind and conscience regardless of 
Pope and Church, the old stagnation 
under which Europe had been tying for 
nearly a thousand years began to give 
way before the irresistible influences of 
such new ideas of liberty and personal 
freedom. The new learning spread like 
wild fire throughout this western world. 
There followed a series of revolutions; 
in Holland first, then in England, then 
our own American revolution, and 
later, the French revolution. The 
whole civilized world was being stirred 
14 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

to its very foundation by this sense of 
new freedom. The true interpretation 
of this revolutionary spirit is only found 
in the steadily deepening sense of the 
worth and value of the individual life, 
the profound significance of the person 
simply as a person. 

Our Declaration of Independence 
announced to the world one of the sub- 
limest truths that ever had been ut- 
tered, that all power comes from the 
people. It was a magnificent denial, 
and the first denial ever made by a na- 
tion, of the old infamous doctrine that 
God confers the right upon one man to 
govern others. It was the first grand 
assertion of the dignity of the human 
race. It meant that the individual man 
was, in theory at least, coming into his 
own. The world can never forget the 
debt of gratitude it owes to those three 
men, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jeffer- 
son, and Benjamin Franklin, who, 
15 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

more than all others, gave to the world 
its first human government. 

There are few people who stop to 
realize the progress that has been made 
during the last century alone in the 
further deepening and extension of this 
sense of the value of the individual life. 
It was not until the year 1808 that 
Great Britain abolished the slave trade. 
Up to that time the judges on the 
bench, in the name of justice, and the 
ministers occupying their pulpits, in the 
name of religion, owned stock in the 
slave ships and luxuriated upon the 
profits of piracy and of murder. It 
was not until the same year that the 
United States abolished slave trade be- 
tween this and other countries, care- 
fully reserving to the States the right 
to exercise that trade among them- 
selves. It was not until the 28th day 
of August, 1833, that Great Britain 
abolished human slavery in her colo- 
16 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

nies; and it was not until January 1st, 
1863, that Abraham Lincoln, sustained 
by the heroic North, " rendered our flag 
for the first time as pure as the sky in 
which it floats." 

From the standpoint of the individ- 
ual, the history of man is simply the 
history of slavery, of injustice, of bru- 
tality, together with the means by 
which man has slowly and painfully 
advanced toward freedom. He has 
been the sport and prey of King and 
Priest, the victim of superstition and 
cruel might. " His ignorance has been 
governed by fear. Hypocrisy and tyr- 
anny have fed upon the liberties of 
man. Upon the back of industry has 
been the whip. Upon the brains have 
been the fetters of ignorance and super- 
stition. Every art and artifice, every 
cruelty and outrage has been practised 
and perpetrated to destroy the rights 
of man." The King said that mankind 
17 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

must not work for themselves. The 
Priest said that mankind must not 
think for themselves. One forged 
chains for the hands, the other for the 
soul. But one by one the fetters are 
falling and the best days for humanity 
lie beyond, when the truly free man 
shall at length make his appearance. 

A year ago I stood at the tomb of 
Napoleon, and as I gazed upon that 
magnificent sarcophagus of rare and 
priceless marble, I mused upon the ca- 
reer of this, the greatest soldier of mod- 
ern times. I saw him as he stood on 
the banks of the Seine contemplating 
suicide. I saw him as he quelled the 
mob in the streets of Paris. I saw him 
at the head of the army of Italy. I 
saw him scaling the crags and peaks of 
the Alps. I saw him in Egypt in the 
shadow of the Pyramids. I saw him at 
Marengo, at Ulm, and at Austerlitz. 
I saw him in Russia, where the snow 
18 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

and winds of winter scattered his le- 
gions like withered leaves. I saw him 
at Leipsic, overtaken by disaster and 
defeat, crowded back upon Paris by a 
million bayonets. I saw him in the 
courtyard at Fontainebleau as he bade 
farewell to his officers. I saw him ban- 
ished to Elba. I saw him escape and 
retake an empire by force of his mighty 
genius. I saw him on that frightful field 
of Waterloo, when the fate of all Eu- 
rope hung trembling in the balance. 
And I saw him once again, on the 
lonely island of St. Helena, his hands 
folded behind his back, as he looked out 
across the mournful sea, the expression 
of an infinite tragedy chiseled on his 
countenance. And I said to myself, 
" Thus passeth the former glory of the 
world; Kings and Queens may come 
and go in the future, but they will be 
kings and queens in name only; for at 
last the voice of the people is heard; 
19 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

henceforth the King wherever he exists, 
is but the servant of the people, and the 
days of tyranny are ended. There will 
continue to be armies and navies until 
the nations learn the better way; there 
may be wars and battles in the years to 
come, but never again in human history 
will we witness the old false glamour 
and glory and prestige that once sur- 
rounded the career of the soldier, for 
the coming man is the man of peace." 
And then I stood in the old castle at 
Nuremberg, and looked upon those 
diabolical instruments of torture that 
were used in the name of religion. I 
had read about them, I had seen pic- 
tures of them, but I never really appre- 
ciated what it meant until I stood in 
their actual presence; the tragedy of 
religious persecution had never burned 
itself into my soul before. Here was 
the thumb screw, two pieces of iron, 
with protuberances on the inner side, 
20 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

so that they would not slip, with screws 
at either end. Here was the rack, here 
was the collar of torture, the iron boot, 
the Scavenger's Daughter, the Iron 
Maiden, and countless other forms of 
fiendish ingenuity, and as I looked 
upon these things I said to myself, " It 
is no wonder that many of these tor- 
tured victims of religious hatred re- 
canted. Perhaps we would have done 
the same in their places." Because 
some man expressed a doubt as to the 
Doctrine of the Trinity, or was not 
quite sure about all the miracles of the 
Bible, or found that he could not accept 
the authority of the Church as more 
binding upon him than his own con- 
science, or perhaps doubted the saving 
efficacy of baptism, — for such reasons 
as these, thousands were tortured and 
thrown into dungeon cells and put to 
shameful death. 

But I also remembered that now and 
21 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

then there were brave men and women 
who would not swerve a hair's breadth, 
men and women who faced death hero- 
ically rather than utter the lie of the 
recantation ; and I reflected that if it 
had not been for such sublime lives in 
every period of history, the men and 
women who have dared to think for 
themselves, who have denied the right 
of any institution or of any individual 
or class of individuals to dictate their 
thought and belief, — we would still be 
living in a state of savagery and dan- 
cing around some old snake fetich. 
Suppose that the astronomers had been 
able to control the science of astron- 
omy; or the doctors had been able to 
control the science of medicine; or that 
the Kings had been able to fix finally 
the forms of government; or that our 
fathers had accepted unquestioned St. 
Paul's injunction, " be subject to the 
powers that be, because they are or- 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

dained of God; " or that the priests, at 
any period of history, had been able 
to control religion and to formulate be- 
liefs binding on all, where would we be 
to-day, and what would we be to-day \ 
We are where we are and what we are 
in the upward movement of humanity, 
simply because all along the pathway 
there has never been a time when there 
were not souls brave enough, noble 
enough and independent enough, to step 
aside from the crowd, to do their own 
thinking, to formulate their own opin- 
ions, to be true to themselves. Herein 
lies the supreme tragedy of human his- 
tory, but at the same time, it is here 
we see revealed the chief glory of hu- 
manity. 

But we are no longer living in the 
past. Ours is an age that is reaping 
the splendid harvest of all the blood and 
tears and sufferings of other days. In 
many of its aspects, man's age-long 
23 . 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 
struggle has been won, though many 
battles must yet be fought. We have 
won in the struggle for political free- 
dom, at least here in our own glorious 
land, except as it applies to idiots, crim- 
inals, and women, and the end is not 
yet. We have won in the struggle for 
religious liberty. We no longer burn 
heretics, we only brand them, and let 
them go. We have not yet triumphed 
in the struggle for economic freedom, 
but the ultimate victory is assured. 

The story of woman's struggle for 
recognition is full of deepest pathos for 
her, and of disgrace for man. In some 
religions it has been taught that woman 
had no soul, that she was not a person, 
merely a thing. She has been man's 
slave, his dependent, his satellite, his 
play- thing, his drudge, — everything 
but what she is, the mate and equal of 
man. He has hunted her and captured 
her, bought and sold her, denied her the 
24 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

privileges of the higher education, re- 
fused her the right to have any voice 
in making laws, in determining her own 
status, or in creating for herself oppor- 
tunities. And yet during the past few 
years women have carried off the high- 
est honors in almost every department 
of human thought, winning their right 
and demonstrating their ability to stand 
as equal persons by the side of men. 

It is not strange with man's emer- 
gence into this new sense of freedom, 
after all the centuries of tyranny and 
oppression under which he had suffered, 
when his thought had been suppressed 
and his activities curbed, that there 
should have grown up among men 
pretty generally, — let us admit it 
frankly — a kind of blind, narrow, self- 
ish individualism. Especially in this 
new world, where man was confronted 
by greater and more numerous oppor- 
tunities than the old world afforded, 
25 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

have we witnessed man's love of acqui- 
sition blinding him to the solemn obli- 
gations resting upon the free individual. 
The criticisms of individualism, as we 
hear them uttered to-day, so far as they 
apply to that form of selfish individual- 
ism, are richly deserved. In our polit- 
ical life, selfish individualism means 
that while statesmen founded our gov- 
ernment, we are quite content to-day to 
let the politicians run it, so that we can 
be free to make money; it means that 
while great men founded our Cities we 
are quite satisfied to turn over the man- 
agement of the City to the saloon- 
keepers. In religion, it means that we 
are content to place the emphasis on 
minor things, like denominational dif- 
ferences, while the Kingdom of God is 
demanding a solid front, and a unity of 
the spirit. In our economic life, it 
means " every man for himself and the 
devil take the hindermost." 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

But there is coming a higher individ- 
ualism that finds its best expression 
in the new conception of Personality. 
There is no reason in the world why 
we should surrender one iota of the 
sense of personal liberty, which is the 
priceless heritage of the ages, pur- 
chased by the blood of all the martyrs, 
and not be in the truest sense every 
man's brother. " To thine own self be 
true; and it doth follow as the night 
the day, thou canst not then be false 
to any man." The selfish individual 
anywhere is the one who is not true to 
his real self. He is responding to the 
call of but part of his nature, while the 
whole, all-around man demands a hear- 
ing. The hands on the great dial of 
history can never be turned back. We 
have won forever the right to live our 
own lives, to think our own thoughts, 
to come to our own conclusions. But 
in just the degree that we value the 
27 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 
sacred rights of the personal life for 
ourselves, must we not only grant to 
every other being the same rights, but 
still more, must we dedicate our lives 
to the high task of securing for every 
other being, all the rights and privi- 
leges we enjoy. It is only thus that 
our priceless liberties can be preserved. 
Mr. M. D. O'Brien in the Introduc- 
tion to his " Socialism Tested by 
Facts," says: "Nature has endowed 
man with such a spirit that he can never 
permanently become the slave of men. 
This is the spirit of individual liberty, 
the deepest and mightiest fact in ex- 
istence, which plants the root of his life 
in a substance that cannot perish. 
Through this spirit works the Infinite 
and while the heavens bend above, it 
can never break or fail. The spirit of 
individual liberty, of non-conformity, 
of social and political and religious 
heresy, is the sword which nature 
28 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

forges while despots sleep, and just 
when they dream themselves insured in 
an eternity of comfortable stagnation, 
it suddenly flashes before them, scat- 
tering their plans, circumventing their 
cunning, and breaking all their pet 
idols in pieces. This spirit opens the 
enslaved shell of custom, throws it 
aside, and allows the inner life to 
grow." The chief greatness of our age 
lies in the discovery of the undreamed- 
of resources of an individualism, which 
is not synonymous with selfishness, but 
which welcomes and seeks to foster 
everywhere the spirit of altruism, of co- 
operation, of brotherly love. This new 
spirit is finding expression in a thou- 
sand forms, — the better housing of 
the poor, the care of the sick in our 
hospitals, the work for the prevention 
of disease, the efforts directed against 
child labor and in favor of play- 
grounds in our cities, the more humane 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

treatment of criminals, the movements 
looking toward a more just system of 
taxation, a more equal distribution of 
the products of labor, and a more in- 
telligent sympathy for the wage- 
earner. All these and many other 
signs of the times point to the coming 
age of unselfish individualism. 

Mr. H. G. Wells, one of the most 
brilliant of modern Socialistic writers, 
defines Socialism, in a recent book, as 
" the growing realization of construct- 
ive needs." I presume on that defini- 
tion, we are all socialists. We are free 
to admit that things are in pretty much 
of a muddle, politically, economically 
and religiously, and that the supreme 
need of the hour is for constructive 
thinking, for real leadership, for men 
and women who are able to see clearly 
amid all the uncertainties, and hear 
clearly amid all the babel of voices; 
who shall be able to marshall the di- 
30 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

vided and dispirited hosts, and lead us 
on into the promised land that lies be- 
fore us. If by socialism we mean co- 
operation, as opposed to the former 
spirit of fierce, cut-throat competition; 
if we mean the securing to every man, 
woman and child the equal opportunity 
for the fullest physical, mental and 
moral development; if we mean the 
insistence that there shall be no idle 
class, among either rich or poor, and 
that no one need be overworked; if we 
mean the safe-guarding and protect- 
ing of childhood so that every boy and 
girl coming into this world shall have 
at least an equal chance with every 
other boy and girl, then are we all so- 
cialists. But if we mean by socialism, 
or by any other economic theory we 
hold, a mechanical system that would 
tend toward reducing all lives to the 
dead level of existence, the destroying 
of initiative, the infringement of per- 
31 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

sonal liberty, save as that liberty works 
injury to another, the limiting of the 
individual so that he cannot develop or 
live out to the full his God-bestowed 
personality, if our social theories 
would mean the foisting from without 
upon human society with all its turmoil 
and struggle and strife, any mechan- 
ical system, as one would put a cover 
over the boiling, seething contents of 
a kettle on the stove, then we will do 
well to pause and remember the count- 
less struggles that have been waged, 
and the precious blood that has been 
shed in all the ages, to win for us the 
priceless possession of personal liberty, 
the sacred right of growing one's own 
personality. 

Surely every human being ought to 
attain to the dignity of the unit. 
Surely it is worth something to be one, 
and to feel that the census of the Uni- 
verse would be incomplete, if you were 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

not counted. Surely there is grandeur 
in knowing that in the realm of 
thought, you are without a chain; that 
you have the right to explore all 
heights and all depths; that there are 
no walls or fences, nor prohibited 
places, nor sacred corners, in all the 
vast expanse of thought; that your in- 
tellect owes allegiance to no other be- 
ing or Institution. Surely there is in- 
spiration in the thought that you are 
free to find your true and deeper self, 
and having found it, to realize more 
fully day by day all its wondrous ca- 
pacities and powers, till at length you 
stand complete in your true Self- 
hood. 

To be the true Personality means all 
this, but it also means the never-tiring 
endeavor to secure for every man, 
woman and child the same glorious 
privileges, for we have learned to un- 
derstand with Herbert Spencer, " that 
33 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

no one can be perfectly happy till all 
are happy, no one can be perfectly 
moral till all are moral; no one can be 
perfectly free till all are free." 



34 




THE BEGINNINGS OF PER- 
SONALITY 

HETHER we believe it 
practically or not, our sub- 
lime faith in human nature is 
bound up in the thought that 
every child is a child of God, and there- 
fore that all men are, or should be, born 
free and equal; and the hope of human 
progress lies in the fact that all men 
share in the possibilities of a common 
destiny. This destiny, as we have al- 
ready seen, lies in the direction of the 
development of personality. If you 
deny that the black man or the yellow 
man is capable of such development, if 
you hold that the Caucasian or the 
Anglo-Saxon is alone able to achieve 
35 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

personality ; if you despise the others as 
being only beasts of burden, or kill them 
outright as hindrances in the way of 
civilization, then it is only a question of 
time when the logic of such treatment 
will inevitably undermine the boasted 
dignities of the most elect race or the 
most select class. To deny the divine 
possibilities of personality for any 
other human being, is to fall just that 
far short oneself, of becoming a true 
personality. 

If we were to attempt to trace all 
the influences that contribute to the 
formation of the individual personality, 
we should have to begin with the par- 
ents of the child, and behind them with 
their parents, and so be led back into 
the complex, mysterious and subtle in- 
fluences of ancestry. Here we confront 
a field so vast as to naturally require 
separate treatment. The newest of the 
sciences and the one least understood 
36 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

to-day is the science of Eugenics, or 
the science of being well-born. Our 
children's children will profit from this 
new knowledge as we cannot. Our 
wisest men, however, have come to see 
that all improvements of the race are 
only provisional, until we come to un- 
derstand and apply the laws that make 
for race improvement. Nowhere is more 
lamentable ignorance displayed than in 
the laws of human mating, both phys- 
ical and mental. The real crime 
against society, in spite of opinions to 
the contrary, is not divorce ; it is rather 
the crime of hasty and unintelligent 
marriages that lead inevitably towards 
divorce; while the monstrous crime 
against childhood in an age that calls 
itself civilized, is the thoughtless as- 
sumption of the solemn obligations of 
parenthood by husbands and wives who 
have not the slightest conception of the 
physical or mental laws that make for 
37 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the all around well-being of their chil- 
dren. True child culture must begin 
with father and mother culture, and this 
is the reason that the science of Eu- 
genics is necessarily the coming science. 
But we are now to trace the beginnings 
of personality as we see them in the 
individual life. 

The time up to the twenty-fourth or 
twenty-fifth year of the life of the indi- 
vidual, when one may be said to have 
attained maturity, falls roughly into 
two periods of about twelve years each. 
The first is the period of childhood; 
and the second, the period of youth, or 
adolescence. Childhood is the period 
of preparation for the great changes 
that take place during adolescence. 
We are accustomed to speak of per- 
sonality as if it were a natural endow- 
ment given to every child by virtue of 
his birth into the world. As a matter 
of fact, the child's conscious existence 
38 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

begins long before the emergence of 
personality. Even though " poets are 
born and not made," nobody is born 
" a person." Personality is not an 
original possession; it is a slow and 
gradual achievement. The babe is a 
" candidate for humanity; " it is to be 
regarded as " eligible for personality." 
The most that can be said is that this 
little Being possesses in himself the 
potentiality, the latent powers and 
abilities, which, in due course of time, 
may be unfolded or developed into 
what we recognize as personality. 
" No mortal knows how Personality 
begins to be, any more than one can 
conceive the beginning of the Universe. 
Nor can we put our finger on the exact 
moment when a given individual begins 
to be a person." It is just as easy to 
decide when man arrived in the long 
evolutionary process, as it is to say 
when one who " comes from out the 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

boundless deep," begins to be actually 
" a person." 

The beginnings of consciousness in 
the life of the babe consist of a dim 
awareness of certain organic states. 
There is a succession of sensations, 
pleasures, pains, desires, passions, ap- 
petites, like so many glass beads strung 
together on a string. There is no unity 
at first, except that made by a some- 
what vague memory, but this is not real 
or constructive unity. The child is 
moved by impulses from within and 
by many different influences from 
without, visible and invisible. He gives 
expression to will, but it is like a blind 
force. There is no free will as yet. 
Mothers and poets alike have noticed 
that " babies new to earth and sky," 
have no consciousness of self. They 
do not say " I," but speak of them- 
selves in the third person. Apparently 
for some time they do not differentiate 
40 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

themselves from the things about 
them. 

If we ask how, out of this mass of 
primitive sensations which mark the 
twilight period of consciousness, does 
clear self-consciousness arise, we dis- 
cover at the outset that it never would 
arise apart from social influence. It 
would be as impossible to develop a 
personality without human society, as 
it would be to maintain life without 
atmosphere. Without a human envi- 
ronment the child would never get be- 
yond the awareness of those " warm 
and intimate feelings which give him 
the sense of ' at homeness ' in the body," 
and which are probably shared by most 
animals. Almost from the first, as if 
by pure instinct, the child reacts 
towards persons differently than 
toward anything else in its environ- 
ment. In the second month of life, 
he distinguishes the touch of his mother 
41 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

in the dark, and in various ways be- 
haves in a peculiar way toward per- 
sons. By the end of the sixth month, 
the imitative powers are well advanced. 
The child is the most imitative of be- 
ings, and this function of imitation is 
one of his most effective means, not only 
of mastering the world, but also of 
attaining to self-hood. 

Slowly and yet surely, the facts are 
compelling us to admit that the range 
and scope of inheritance have been 
over-emphasized. Very much which 
was formerly thought to have been 
transmitted by heredity, we now know 
has been gained by imitation, both con- 
scious and unconscious. From the first 
the child imitates persons. The moth- 
er's smile makes him smile, while the 
sad face and drooping lip are as quickly 
imitated. A little later he begins to 
imitate not only the actions, but the 
deeds of the persons he knows, and this 
42 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

gives the child an experience out of 
which it gathers constantly new mate- 
rial for enriching his own mental life 
and also for understanding the actions 
of other persons. Then there begins 
the long, slow mastery of human lan- 
guage, through which his mental life 
is immeasurably widened and he him- 
self is brought into closer and more 
intelligent relations with those about 
him. This, again, is due to his ability 
to imitate the sounds that he hears 
others express. 

The chief characteristic of the child's 
mental life is his dependency on others. 
The child does not think for himself. 
He accepts the statements of parents 
or teacher without question; he takes 
their word for granted. We do not 
expect him to be a logician or reasoner. 
The child does not look within, but 
without; he is not interested in that 
which is remote, but in that which is 
43 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

near; he is not concerned with uni- 
versal or abstract propositions or ideals, 
but with particular things that have a 
direct and immediate bearing upon his 
own life, his own comfort, his own 
pleasure. The child is simple, natural, 
credulous, wide-eyed and open-eared, 
drinking in. impressions of all kinds and 
from every source, and thus storing 
away material to be used in wondrous 
ways when mental life shall awaken to 
independence. 

The child is instinctively and essen- 
tially selfish. He is neither moral nor 
immoral. He is simply as yet unmoral. 
We do not blame the child for his self- 
ishness. It is perfectly natural at this 
stage of his development. The child 
is selfish because his life of necessity 
revolves around himself. His selfish- 
ness in any form is really the vague 
dumb assertion of his little individual- 
ity. It is the only way he knows how 
44 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

to express himself as a distinct being 
apart from others. It is the uncon- 
scious, childish beginning of man's 
struggle for personal liberty. He feels 
very naturally that the world exists for 
him, and therefore everything in the 
world ought to belong to him. This 
is to be expected in the child. It be- 
comes a wrong only when this childish 
thought is allowed to continue into later 
life. Religion for the child is chiefly 
the natural reflection of the religious 
ideas given it by parents and friends. 
The childish imagination projects the 
image of Father and Mother into the 
sky and calls it God. God is real to 
the child in the sense that he does not 
think of questioning His existence, but 
not real in the sense that he under- 
stands the vital relationship between 
his life and the life of the Infinite. He 
says his prayers, and performs his 
other religious duties in the same way 
45 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

that he learns his lessons or goes 
through his calisthenics at school, as 
something to be done, without recog- 
nition of the deeper significance of 
these things. 

The child carries no load of regrets 
for past disappointments and failures, 
or of apprehensions for future ills. He 
suffers no pains of a divided will, at 
war within himself. If he expresses 
sorrow for wrong-doing, there is al- 
ways the suspicion that the sorrow pro- 
ceeds from the punishment rather than 
from the sense of having done wrong. 
He does not pretend to be anything 
else than a child. " In his simplicity, 
in his docility, in his capacity for com- 
plete joy or rest, in the fact that he 
lives not in the past, or the future, but 
in the present and by the hour, taking 
things as they come and giving himself 
absolutely to the life of the hour, — the 
child, so completely a child of nature, 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

is the eternal parable of that higher 
moral and spiritual state to which the 
man is at last destined to come." 

Is it true that childhood is the hap- 
piest period of life, and would we 
choose, if we could, " to pass out of 
life through the gateway of birth and 
not of death? " This would be to con- 
fess human life a gigantic failure. 
Nevertheless there comes the long pe- 
riod into which childhood impercepti- 
bly passes, during which the charm, the 
ease, the grace and the care-free joy- 
ousness of childhood largely disappear; 
and yet it is as necessary to the devel- 
opment of personality as was the pre- 
ceding state. It is like the period in 
plant life that follows the beauty of 
the tender leaf and the blossoming 
flower. The fruit has now set, and it 
grows toward maturity, but as yet it 
is small and acid to the taste. 

Now there takes place that won- 
47 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

drous miracle, whereby consciousness 
passes into self-consciousness, and the 
youth whispers to himself, " I am I," 
or perhaps with Descartes, " I think, 
therefore I am." It does not always 
come with sudden, startling clearness. 
In many lives it is a gradual growth, 
but there are many who can lay their 
ringer on the day and the hour, or recall 
most vividly the experience, when the 
conscious child awakened to the mean- 
ing of self-conscious youth. 

Jean Paul Kichter, the great Ger- 
man writer, tells us of the experience 
as it came to him, in these words, 
" Never shall I forget that inward oc- 
currence, till now narrated to no mor- 
tal, wherein I witnessed the birth of 
my self-consciousness, of which I can 
still give the time and place. One fore- 
noon I was standing, a very young 
child, in the outer door, and looking 
leftward at the stack of the fuel-wood, 
48 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

when all at once the internal vision, ' I 
am a me ' (Ich bin ein Ich), came like 
a flash from heaven before me, and in 
gleaming light ever afterward contin- 
ued." 

With the dawning of self-conscious- 
ness, whether it be slow or sudden, 
come the first premonitions of that pro- 
found change, the greatest that takes 
place in the life of the individual be- 
tween birth and death. During the 
next few years there is to come a trans- 
formation of the mental and moral, as 
well as of the physical organism, that 
has no parallel in previous experience. 
It is during this adolescent period that 
there come into life new sensations, 
new emotions, new ideas, new views of 
life, new problems of duty, new temp- 
tations, new attitudes of will, new mys- 
teries of religion. All these new forces 
now come sweeping like a flood over 
the boy or girl, just emerging from 
49 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

childhood. We are greatly indebted to 
men like President G. Stanley Hall, 
Drs. Lancaster, Burnham, Leuba, 
Starbuck, Coe, and others, for their 
recent studies in this hitherto quite 
neglected field of human development. 

Some one has described this adoles- 
cent period as being nothing less than 
a new birth. Perhaps this experience 
was in the mind of Jesus when he said, 
" Ye must be born again." Certain it 
is, that in the normally unfolding life, 
this is the period when the true life of 
the spirit should come into conscious 
being and the new Self begin to make 
its appearance. 

The welling-up of new life forces on 
to the plane of the higher consciousness 
is the central fact in this adolescent 
period; but when this new life breaks 
at the surface it manifests itself with 
as great variety as there is diversity, 
on the one hand, of temperament, and 
50 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

on the other, of environmental condi- 
tions. Beyond question, and I am only 
stating what we all know but for the 
most part ignore, this is by far the most 
critical and crucial period in the devel- 
opment of the individual life. It is 
pre-eminently so for our present pur- 
pose, because it is during this period 
that we are able to trace clearly the 
emergence of what later we come to 
recognize as human personality. This 
being the case^ we should expect that 
the training of the child as he ap- 
proaches adolescence, should be so or- 
ganized and guided as to prepare him 
for this singular experience in his phys- 
ical, mental and moral nature. To les- 
sen the shock of the physical awakening, 
one would suppose that parents and 
teachers would impart, long before the 
new knowledge became a disturbing 
factor, at least the essential facts con- 
cerning the nature of sex. There can 
51 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

be no greater wrong against youth, 
whether boy or girl, than to allow them 
to meet and deal with this profoundest 
fact of life, without ever having re- 
ceived from any pure or authoritative 
source a single item of information 
regarding it. It is the time above all 
other times when every guide the child 
has, — parent, teacher or friend — 
should stand in closest sympathy with 
him, letting him know that he is under- 
stood so that he may freely and 
frankly ask advice. We should expect 
that the life of the youth in the home, 
the school, the church, his tasks, his 
plays, his social life, would all be care- 
fully and intelligently planned and 
supervised with special reference to 
this stage of growth. " To ask whether 
the church and the school and the home 
meet and satisfy these reasonable ex- 
pectations, is less the putting of a ques- 
tion than the proclamation of an indict- 
52 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

ment. For the most part we have not 
so much as taken the trouble to under- 
stand the period of youth, how then 
can we expect to conserve and promote 
its physical, mental, moral and spiritual 
values? " Altogether too often the boy 
or girl is left to struggle through the 
years of adolescence alone and un- 
aided. Is it any wonder that many of 
them stumble and make mistakes? Is 
it strange that so many fail to find 
themselves, — the true selves? This 
should be the practical result of this 
period of development in every indi- 
vidual life, and yet multitudes go forth 
into the years of maturity, weak, puny, 
crippled or only partially awakened 
persons. 

Let us think of some of the mental 
characteristics of this period in the life 
of the growing individual, and their 
bearing on the emergence of personal- 
ity. This is the period of the divided 
53 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

will. We see now no longer merely a 
stream of sensations, blindly following 
one another. The materials of con- 
sciousness are arraying themselves con- 
structively into the lines of habits, good 
or bad, while impulses are settling into 
principles, helpful or harmful. Appe- 
tites, desires, passions, aspirations, un- 
noticed before, now fall into their sep- 
arate classes. Some belong to the 
lower self, others are the expression 
of the higher self. Elemental passions 
seem to rise and sway one's life as if 
it were " a log, caught by the waves." 
Or again, music sounds in his ears and 
lofty visions appear in his soul, letting 
him into the secrets of another and 
holier realm. Strange, mighty oppos- 
ing forces seem to be struggling for the 
possession of his soul. This inner 
struggle becomes the most real thing 
in life for the time being. It is the 
" storm and stress " period; again and 
54 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

again the soul cries out with Paul, 
" For that which I do, I would not ; 
and what I would not, that I do." 

The old, unthinking, irresponsible 
self-centred self of childhood, finds it- 
self confronted by a newer self dimly 
perceived as yet, — a larger self, with 
wider outlook, broader sympathies, and 
loftier purposes, that is nothing less 
than the child of the Spirit, struggling 
for its rightful place in the life. But 
the old self dies hard, and the higher 
self is as yet not clearly recognized; 
hence the inner struggle and the di- 
vided will. 

But it is none the less the time of 
storm and stress in the mental life of 
youth. In many different ways this 
finds expression. It may be experi- 
enced in a sense of incompleteness and 
imperfection, never realized before. 
Underneath the surface there has been 
a real, though vague and but half- 
55 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

conscious moving on toward an ideal, 
but the ideal has not yet assumed defi- 
nite outlines, and one is haunted by the 
sense of the gulf that divides the illim- 
itable ideal from the lagging real. The 
boy who has been careless in school, 
now begins to awaken to his intellectual 
limitations, and, with the coming of new 
ambitions there comes also the keen 
sense of shortcomings. In some na- 
tures this takes the form of an intense 
feeling of sin and guilt, accompanied 
with earnest efforts to " find salvation." 
Sometimes, owing to temperament or 
early teaching, there is the fear of eter- 
nal punishment. The thought of death, 
says Dr. Scott, even when completely 
dissociated from religion, is most pro- 
nounced during adolescence. It is the 
period of moral as well as physical awk- 
wardness. The child has no regrets, 
but let no one imagine that the youth 
escapes the pain and suffering conse- 
56 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

quent upon regrets and remorse for 
mistakes made or sins committed. Per- 
haps at no other time is remorse for 
wrong-doing so poignant as when one 
is facing for the first time the high 
ideals of character, and realizes how 
great the distance to be traversed be- 
fore the heights are reached. 

It is the time when the youth begins 
to dream dreams and catch visions and 
look beyond the realm of self; when 
one formulates ambitions to do some- 
thing great in the world, to attain the 
heights of heroic purpose, to fail, if 
need be, but to go down if one must, 
with the flag still flying. It is the biog- 
raphies of great men and women that 
now appeal most of all to the boy or 
girl, the stories of heroic enterprise that 
stir the latent ambition to become like- 
wise great, or do the heroic thing. Who 
of us cannot recall with more swiftly 
beating heart, the days of youth with 
57 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

their long bright dreams of coming 
greatness and glory? 

This is the time also of lonely brood- 
ing, of periods of depression with fre- 
quent moods of melancholy and much 
morbid introspection. Prof. Starbuck 
has gathered many hundreds of letters 
from men and women, all bearing testi- 
mony to this striking characteristic of 
adolescence in their own experience. It 
is due not merely to a momentary dis- 
couragement with self, but rather to a 
pessimistic attitude toward Life in gen- 
eral, and the possibility of achieving 
anything really worth while. As we 
grow older, we laugh at the boy or girl 
who talks pessimistically or cynically 
about life, and wonders sadly if life is 
worth living, but we need to remember 
that it is all tremendously real to the 
growing youth. He must find out for 
himself if there is any real meaning in 
Life, before he can truly begin to live 
58 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

the real and earnest life. It is also the 
period of introspection, and introspec- 
tion, if prolonged, leads almost inevi- 
tably to morbidness. Metaphorically 
speaking, the youth spends many hours 
looking down his spiritual throat, or 
feeling his spiritual pulse, when he 
should be busy at other things. The 
best motto to offset this tendency is 
that of Edward Everett Hale's, 

" Look up, not down, 
Look out, not in, 
Look forward and not backward 
And lend a hand." 

Another very common and well-nigh 
universal characteristic of adolescence 
is the tendency to doubt or question. 
The child asks "Why?" but does not 
question the answer given. Parents 
or teachers are sufficient authorities for 
the child. But now the youth begins 
to question the old authority. He is 
59 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

no longer satisfied to take things for 
granted. The youth is not content to 
accept what parents or teachers have 
said simply because they said it. He 
wants to know beyond the shadow of a 
doubt if the statement is true. Every- 
thing must be proven and demon- 
strated to his satisfaction before he will 
accept it. Childish credulity now gives 
place to intellectual doubt. This ques- 
tioning is applied to about everything. 
In religious things, it is usually the 
doubt of the inspiration of the Bible, 
or of some doctrine, like the Divinity of 
Christ, or eternal punishment, or of the 
authenticity of the miracles. A little 
later may arise the doubt of even the 
existence of God. There is great need 
of clearer thinking in regard to the 
meaning of doubt as a stage in human 
development. We have scarcely out- 
grown the conception, especially in ec- 
clesiastical circles and also in many 
60 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

Christian homes, that doubt is sin. 
Here lies the pathos and even the trag- 
edy in many a Christian home to-day. 
The boy or girl has come to this adoles- 
cent period of life, when the perfectly 
natural and inevitable thing for the 
growing mind is to question and doubt 
until one finds for himself the solution 
of the problem ; and multitudes of well- 
meaning and devoted parents are so 
blind to the real significance of this 
period in their children's development 
that their entire effort is given to sup- 
pressing the doubt, to stopping the 
child from thinking for himself, which 
is the law of his being, to making the 
child feel that it is doing wrong to 
harbor any such questions for a mo- 
ment. 

James Lane Allen in " The Reign of 

Law," tells the story of the struggle 

between the boy who had come home 

from college with his doubts and mis- 

61 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

givings, and the father and the mother 
who did not understand, and whose at- 
titude toward their son seemed to shut 
him out from the pale of religion and 
make him even an outcast from God 
and men. The unfortunate thing is, 
that the story is so true to life and can 
be paralleled by many a personal ex- 
perience. What we need to recognize 
as parents and teachers is that the 
doubts are a part of a development, 
which, given certain temperaments, is 
inevitable, and which is natural and 
normal if the personality is to attain 
its highest possibilities. If the full sig- 
nificance of this development is appre- 
ciated, we shall not be surprised to find 
that the higher life-purposes develop 
and intensify simultaneously with the 
growth of doubt. And when parents 
or teachers take the attitude that doubt 
is wrong and must be suppressed they 
will do one of two things: either force 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

that doubt into open unbelief, or else 
make a weakling, a dependent, a mere 
echo, of their boy or girl. 

Let me give a personal experience, 
simply because it is so typical. When 
I entered college at seventeen years of 
age, I had never in my life known a 
single doubt in religion. I believed the 
Bible from cover to cover and I had 
never seen any reason to question any- 
thing in the faith of my fathers. As I 
began my college course I naturally 
came into contact with a new set of asso- 
ciates. I lived my life in a new atmos- 
phere, I read new books, I listened to 
new teachers, I became familiar for the 
first time with the natural sciences. It 
was perfectly natural and quite inevita- 
ble that I should begin to question 
many of the things I previously be- 
lieved. I began to ask how much of 
this was true, and how much of it was 
not true, for me. As I went on in my 
63 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

intellectual development the time came 
when I abandoned the idea of entering 
the Christian ministry, the purpose I 
had when entering college, simply be- 
cause I felt I no longer believed what 
the church would expect me to preach. 
Some of my friends said it was due to 
the fact that I had lost my religion and 
sinfully trampled on my faith. No one, 
save those who have gone through a 
similar experience, can know what it 
meant to me. And yet I understand 
that experience to-daj^ as I did not then. 
There never had been a time in my 
whole life when I was so honestly and 
deeply and intensely religious as during 
that period of darkness and uncertainty. 
There never was a time when my faith 
was more profound and vital than dur- 
ing those years of questioning and 
doubt. 

I have learned in my experience, as 
every normal man and woman learns, 
64 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

that the doubt that is not an end in 
itself is the greatest instrument in the 
discovery of truth. Every real doubt 
that has ever come to me or that comes 
to me to-day, is always the precursor 
— and I have learned to respect the 
doubt as such — of new discoveries of 
Truth, just beyond. If parents and 
teachers could but see that doubt is 
God's method for leading toward 
clearer and fuller light, and that the 
new self just emerging, must do its 
own thinking if it is to find its real 
place in the world of thought and ideas ; 
if instead of suppressing doubt, they 
would wisely, frankly and sympathet- 
ically help the youth to use the doubt 
as the means of the discovery of truth, 
how many spiritual tragedies might be 
averted ! 

Still another characteristic of this pe- 
riod of development, is the sense of 
estrangement, or the feeling of loneli- 
65 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ness and aloofness. How many young 
people have said to me, " You know, 
in some way I am different than oth- 
ers, I think differently than other peo- 
ple on so many matters." The individ- 
ual and his surroundings come into 
antagonism. There is a clash. In the 
inability of the youth to harmonize him- 
self with his environment, he feels that 
his integrity is being threatened and can 
only be preserved by pitting himself 
against his surroundings. Charles 
Kingsley, at twenty years of age, wrote 
to an aunt of his: " For some reason, 
while I am no cleverer or wiser than 
other people, yet in my heart and mind 
I am totally different from every one 
else." This is the time when we feel 
most strongly that nobody understands 
us, that even our parents fail to under- 
stand us; and, unfortunately, this is 
many times true. The true meaning of 
such experiences is again to be found 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

in the newly emerging personality. All 
of life is new and strange. One has 
not yet become acquainted with the 
true Self; he is not yet at home in the 
new world just opening before him, 
why should he not feel a stranger and 
alone? Wise indeed was the mother of 
Phillips Brooks, who when this time 
came to her son, bravely said, " I'll not 
bother him now. I'll not let him know 
I miss his confidences, I'll not reprove 
him for drawing apart from me. He 
is working out his manhood, and I'll 
just keep still and give him my sym- 
pathy and prayers." 

It is during adolescence that the re- 
ligious awakening is most apt to take 
place. Prof. Starbuck, after a wide 
range of investigation, finds that by far 
the great majority of men and women 
who profess religious conversion, met 
this experience during the period from 
fifteen to twenty years of age. It is 
67 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

not only true of the Christian religion, 
it is true of all religions. Prof. Daniels 
has given a long list of religious prac- 
tices signalizing the simultaneous initia- 
tion of youths into manhood and into 
the mysteries of religion, to which Prof. 
Coe adds one of the most beautiful ex- 
amples from the North American In- 
dians. Among many tribes when the 
Indian boy approaches this adolescent 
period he is sent out into the wilderness 
to fast four days and nights alone. He 
is given a bow and arrow, but, in order 
to teach him self-control, he is forbid- 
den to kill any creature. When alone 
on the mountains, he lifts up his voice 
to the Great Spirit in these words, " Oh 
God! here, poor and needy, I stand." 
The melody of the song, — which has 
been sung under such circumstances 
from before the time that the white man 
first set foot on this soil, — the beseech- 
ing prayerfulness of it, is so beautiful 
68 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

that one marvels how it could have had 
a barbarous origin. What is it but a 
prayer for some vision direct, for light 
that will show him whether he should 
become the warrior or the hunter or the 
medicine man? There is not so much 
difference between the savage and the 
civilized boy. It is at this period that 
there come deep stirrings of mind and 
conscience, the inner awakening of the 
spirit, that, if wisely directed, lead the 
youth naturally to seek some personal 
relations with the Infinite, and to come 
into sympathetic and helpful relation- 
ship with his fellows. 

All these characteristics of the ado- 
lescent period are to be interpreted in 
only one way. Whether we regard it 
from the physiological, the psycholog- 
ical or the spiritual viewpoint, this 
storm and stress period of youth, this 
period of instability, this struggle be- 
tween selfishness and unselfishness, 
69 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

these doubts and questionings and 
fears, these moral inconsistencies and 
ofttimes moral lapses, the desire, hun- 
ger and aspiration toward the ideal — 
all this but signifies the birth of the new 
and larger self. It is the emergence of 
personality. The tragedy is that there 
are so many men and women who 
go through this adolescent period and 
reach the years of maturity without 
ever having found themselves, who are 
not entitled, in the true sense of the 
word, to the name of " Person." At 
the time when they should normally 
have attained to Personality, at least 
in its true beginnings, they did not 
understand; and those who stood near- 
est to them did not know how best to 
help; so they have gone on into the 
midstream of Life still waging the 
inner struggle, still restlessly seeking 
the secret of peace and happiness and 
power. The ancients supposed that 
70 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

when one reached the age of twenty- 
five he was a mature man; but we 
understand to-day that maturity, if it 
means anything at all, means freedom, 
self-control, self-poise, sweetness and 
joy; it means most of all inward unity. 
No man who has failed of finding in- 
ward unity can rightfully call himself a 
personality. 

If we are at all correct in this at- 
tempt to describe the adolescent period 
of life, when the larger self is born and 
the personality first begins to emerge, 
do we not see how tremendously critical 
a time it is? There is no more crucial 
period in all of life. It is now that per- 
sonality is germinating, poised between 
an infinite variety of possibilities. It is 
here that all the tendencies of childhood 
converge and interplay with the racial 
tendencies, to determine the direction 
of the later development. It is the 
period of the formation of habits, right 
71 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

or wrong, of the fixing of principles, 
helpful or harmful. It is the time when 
the youth should find himself, should 
discover his real place, his real stand- 
ing, his real purpose, his real worth in 
the world. 

To all young people especially, the 
great message is one of confidence and 
hope. Do not grow discouraged. It 
is not an easy period of life. In many 
respects it is the very hardest. But to 
achieve the true personality, which is 
the real purpose of adolescence, is 
worth all its struggles and baffling 
doubts, its heartaches and its pain, its 
discouragements and loneliness. See 
what all this costly discipline is bring- 
ing you to! It is lifting you in the path 
of spiritual evolution. The nearer you 
grow to true personality, the greater is 
the inner unrest in reconciling the 
claims of the lower self with your dawn- 
ing ideals as the child of the Spirit. 
' 72 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSONALITY 

Let us catch the spirit of Browning's 
message, where he says : 

" Then, welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand 

but go! 
Be our joys three-parts pain! 
Strive and hold cheap the strain; 
Learn, nor account the pangs; dare, 
never grudge the throe! " 



73 




WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

HERE are many things that 
we think we know until we 
are asked about them. Our 
beliefs of various kinds are 
for most of us quite satisfactory, until 
there comes along some insistent ques- 
tioner, or the child in our home begins 
to assail us with a string of " Whys? " 
and after we have attempted to answer 
such questions, we never feel quite so 
sure as before. 

We all know well enough what a 
" person " is until we begin to really 
think about the matter, and then we 
discover that it is not so easy to define 
a " person," and when we make the at- 
tempt we are not quite sure as to what 
74 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

we mean by our definition. We have 
set out in the serious quest after the 
true Self. We have seen that the great- 
est thing in the world is human person- 
ality, — the goal and end of the whole 
evolutionary process. We have fol- 
lowed the struggle of humanity through 
the ages, as it has sought to free itself 
from the tyranny of both civil and re- 
ligious despotism, and attain to personal 
liberty and the opportunity for achiev- 
ing the true, symmetrical personality. 
We have traced the beginnings of real 
personality in the crucial and critical 
adolescent period of youth; and now 
we are ready to attempt a definition, to 
answer the question, " What is Person- 
ality? " In our present endeavor to 
analyze the conception of Personality, 
we need to do some clear and careful 
thinking. It will not hurt us to do a 
little real thinking about ourselves. 
Perhaps our partially developed and 
T5 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

unsatisfactory personalities, are due to 
the lack of such thinking in the past. 
At any rate our analysis of the mean- 
ing of Personality is not for the sake 
of the analysis, but rather, of what it 
may yield us of clearer light and nobler 
incentive as we proceed in our search 
for the ultimate meaning of life and the 
true significance of human destiny. 

We all instinctively split the Uni- 
verse into a self and a not-self, and this 
division seems to satisfy until we ask 
where the line of cleavage is to be 
drawn. Then we discover that there is 
some of " self " in everything with 
which we have to do. " Is the body the 
self or the not-self? Is the house I have 
built, the book I have written, the child 
who is born to me, mine, or rather me? " 
Everybody knows how a fire that 
sweeps away long familiar personal 
possessions, or a financial crisis that 
leaves us beggared in this world's 
76 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

goods, or the separation through death 
from those who have been the life of 
our lives, leaves us shrunken beings, 
less than we were, because something 
of our very self has gone. This means 
that we cannot draw the hard and fast 
line between the self and the not-self. 
For all practical purposes, however, the 
contrast between a person and a thing 
is clear enough. Let us keep in mind 
that all we know about Personality we 
have to learn from human persons. 
Whatever knowledge we profess to 
have of the personality of God comes 
to us solely through our knowledge of 
human personality. We do not call 
any sub-human being a person. The 
higher animals, like the dog and the 
horse, possess powers of the same na- 
ture as our own. Some of the dogs, 
who have been in our homes for years, 
seem almost personal; and yet we do 
not regard them as fully so. So far as 
77 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

we can judge, they do not possess these 
powers that we find in human Person- 
ality to that degree or in that combina- 
tion, that would warrant us in ascribing 
Personality to them. Something is 
lacking. 

The fundamental contrast between 
the person and the thing lies in the fact 
that the person is possessed of self -con- 
sciousness. This is the first thing to be 
noted in our analysis of the meaning of 
Personality. But what do we mean by 
self -consciousness? What is the Self 
that is conscious? What is it for a Self 
to be conscious? Here we must take 
pains to make some definite psycholog- 
ical distinctions that will prove invalu- 
able in our study of the Self. 

The first essential in every form of 
mental activit} 7 , is that there shall be 
the individual consciousness of the " I " 
or the Ego, who is always the Thinker 
of the thought, the Feeler of the feel- 
78 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

ing, the Actor of the act. We cannot 
go through any mental operation with- 
out the consciousness of this " I." 
Every form of mental activity, whether 
it be thinking or feeling or willing, re- 
volves around the "I." You cannot 
escape the " I am." It is always " I 
think," or " I feel," or " I will." You 
cannot separate the " I " from the 
thinking process, or from the feeling 
process, or from the willing process. 
There, is always the " I " behind every 
mental state, to which everything is 
referred, which participates in every 
thought and from which proceeds every 
effort of the will. But as soon as we 
begin to ask what this " I " is, this 
Something that is always present in 
every conscious mental activity and 
from which we never escape, we find 
ourselves baffled. All attempts to de- 
fine or explain the nature of this " I," 
must fail. It is a Something that can- 
79 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

not be explained, and is known only by- 
its presence in consciousness. Think as 
we will, we are inevitably brought back 
to our starting-point — "I am." The 
" I " is — and nothing more. This 
" I " which is j is the knower, the 
thinker, the actor, the seer, the doer. It 
is the essence of every mental state. 

The next fact to be noted in all men- 
tal activity is the presence in conscious- 
ness of the secondary " I," the alter- 
ego, or the " Me," as Prof. James calls 
it. The distinction may seem somewhat 
subtle, but a little consideration will 
make it plain. The essential difference 
is that the " I " is the Something that 
knows, feels and wills, while the " Me " 
is that part of the Self that is known 
to the " I," as mental states, feelings, 
thoughts and will-impulses. A man's 
body, with its physical sensations, is a 
part of his " Me," which may be exam- 
ined, analyzed and ruled by his " I." 
80 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

His feelings, pains, pleasures, opinions, 
prejudices, inclinations and the rest of 
the mental things that he considers as 
a part of himself, are all portions of 
the " Me," for all of them may be con- 
sidered, examined, changed and ruled 
by the " I." The " Me " in all its parts 
and phases is always the " object " of 
contemplation by the " I," and the "I " 
is always the " subject " that contem- 
plates the things of the " Me." You 
can never truly separate the two. 

In order to understand this distinc- 
tion a little more clearly, let us consider 
a few examples: You see a thing. 
There are always three phases of the 
seeing — namely: (1) the thing seen, 
which is something outside both the 
"I" and the "Me;" (2) the mental 
operation known as " sight," which be- 
longs to the " Me; " and (3) the Some- 
thing that sees, which is the " I." This 
applies in the same way to all of the 
81 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

senses. We experience a " feeling," 
arising from some emotional activity. 
There are three phases of this feeling 
— namely : ( 1 ) the outside thing from 
which the emotion arises; (2) the emo- 
tion felt, which belongs to the " Me," 
for it comes from within our being ; and 
(3) the Feeler of the emotion — that 
Something that experiences the feeling, 
which is the "I." Or we think a 
thought. There are three phases to this 
also — namely : ( 1 ) the outer object of 
the thought; (2) the thought itself, 
which belongs to the "Me;" (3) the 
Thinker, which is the " I." 

Leaving out of consideration the out- 
side thing which arouses the feeling or 
thought, we always have two aspects of 
mental activity to deal with — ( 1 ) The 
mental activity or the " Me," and (2) 
The " I," which is always the Knower 
of the mental activity. The mental ac- 
tivity is the object, and the " I " is the 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

subject of consciousness. These two 
elements are always present in all con- 
scious mental activity. 

We have found then, a final, ultimate 
Something within ourselves that defies 
our powers of analysis. This " I " is 
what psychologists have called the 
" pure ego." It is the Something that 
is always present in consciousness, as 
that which is conscious, while the " Me " 
is simply a bundle of states of con- 
sciousness, or things of which the " I " 
is conscious. The " I " is always the 
same, — always the " I," for other than 
itself it cannot be. The " Me " is con- 
stantly changing and never the same. 
The " Me " of to-day is different from 
the " Me " of yesterday. Whether you 
define this " I," or Ego, as " the soul," 
or as " a center of conscious energy in 
the World-Soul," or with John Fiske, 
as " an emanation from the Infinite," 
it matters not for our present consider- 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ation; the all-important thing about it 
in psychology, is that it is, and further, 
that it may be recognized, realized and 
manifested to a degree undreamed of 
by most of us. 

There are several important things, 
however, that we may learn about the 
" I " by a negative process of exclusion. 
You can never think of your " I " as 
not-being. You can never say, "I am 
not," nor can you even imagine yourself 
as not-being. So long as you think of 
yourself — the " I " — at all, you must 
accompany the thought with the con- 
sciousness of being. Nor can you imag- 
ine yourself as being any other " I " 
than it is. You may think of it sur- 
rounded with other " Me " aspects or 
objects, but you can never think of your 
" I " as being another " I." There are 
other vital facts bearing upon the 
" Ego," which we shall consider later. 

It may be objected that it makes no 
84 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

material difference to the individual 
whether he is able to distinguish thus 
between the " I " and the " Me," or not, 
— that he must live his life according 
to his nature in either case. As a mat- 
ter of fact, it is upon the clear realiza- 
tion of this distinction that the whole 
question of the development of Person- 
ality really turns. The realization of 
the " Ego," at once causes the individ- 
ual to know that ^^ is not merely what 
he thinks or feels or wills, but is rather 
the Something that thinks, feels or 
wills, and therefore may govern and 
master these mental activities, instead of 
being governed and mastered by them. 
According to the old idea, a man is the 
slave and creature of his mental states, 
while under the new idea he may as- 
sume his rightful place on the mental 
throne, and make his own choice as to 
what feelings he may wish to feel, what 
emotions he may wish to experience, 
85 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

what thoughts he may wish to think, 
what things he may wish to do. 

The true Personality, therefore, is 
first of all the Egoist. He has entered 
into the realization of the " I " to such 
a degree that he becomes the Master, 
not the Slave. He realizes that the sov- 
ereign will of the individual resides in 
the Ego, and that all his mental states 
must obey its mandates. There is all 
the difference in the world between ego- 
ism and egotism. Although many peo- 
ple confuse the two words, they are as 
far apart as the poles. The egoist is 
the man who has learned to value and 
respect himself so deeply, that he is 
bound to value and respect the Ego of 
every other person. The egotist is the 
man who is so blinded to his true Ego 
by his own selfish thoughts and false 
pride, that he has no knowledge of, nor 
reverence for the rights and privileges 
of other people. We shall not get very 
86 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

far in the development of the true per- 
sonality within us until we make this 
distinction, and come to see that self- 
consciousness means the deep realiza- 
tion of the Ego. Such realization re- 
veals the truth that the " I " in you has 
at its command a wonderful array of 
mental instruments which, if properly 
used, may create for you any kind of 
a personality you desire. You are the 
Master Workman who may make of 
yourself what you will. But before you 
can appreciate this truth and make it 
your own, you must enter into a deeper 
recognition of this wonderful Ego that 
you are. You are more than body, 
senses, or mind; you are that wonder- 
ful Something, master of all these 
things, of which the profoundest thing 
you can say, is, " I am." 

But this Ego, which is the primary 
fact in personality and the essence of 
every mental state, expresses itself 
87 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

through various channels. These chan- 
nels of expression we may call second- 
ary marks of personality, and as such, 
they are inseparable parts of personal- 
ity. There is Mind, or the intellectual 
nature of man; Feeling, or the emo- 
tional nature of man; and Willing, or 
the volitional nature of man. It is by 
these means, or through these instru- 
ments, that the Ego finds expression. 
If any one of these were absent you 
would not have a real personality. But 
while, for convenience in thinking, we 
divide personality into these three modes 
of manifestation, we need constantly to 
remember that they are not three sep- 
arate things. You can draw no clear 
line between them. There is no such 
thing as feeling without some thought 
or volition; no such thing as thought 
without some feeling or volition; no 
such thing as volition without some 
thought or feeling. They are all bound 
88 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

up together in the unity of the Ego. 
Let us now seek to indicate in outline 
the breadth of the realms covered by 
Mind, Feeling and Will. Later we 
will consider them separately and more 
in detail. 

What powers do we include under 
the Mind of man? We have been led 
during recent years to new heights and 
depths of significance in man's mental 
life, of which our fathers never dreamed. 
The average person would be surprised 
if he were told that probably ninety-five 
per cent, of our mental activities are 
performed on planes either above or 
below the plane of our conscious life. 
In perhaps no other branch, has the 
New Psychology made such rapid 
strides as in this bringing into recog- 
nition of the vast area of the mind of 
man beyond the conscious field. Just 
as there are degrees of heat and cold 
not reached by our instruments; just 
89 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

as there are light vibrations above and 
below the visible spectrum; just as 
there are sounds below and above our 
present capacity for registering them, 
so there are mental operations con- 
stantly being performed outside the 
narrow field of consciousness. 

There is the great realm of the Sub- 
conscious, which modern psychology is 
but just beginning to explore, and 
whose tremendous meaning we are 
only dimly beginning to grasp. In our 
own physical bodies, whether one calls 
the processes, in themselves, psychical, 
or whether one regards them as physical 
processes' but having their direct and 
immediate bearing on mental life, just 
think of the range of activity: diges- 
tion and assimilation, aeration and cir- 
culation, catabolism and anabolism, the 
million changing neuroses, the physical 
side of habit, association, memory, sick- 
ness and health, etc. All these marvel- 
90 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

ous processes are performed in our bod- 
ies, sleeping or waking, of which we are 
entirely unconscious; processes that we 
do not consciously direct or control, and 
yet that are directed and controlled by 
some power, certainly not less than 
mental. 

It would be impossible to catalogue 
all the influences that well up out of 
the sub-conscious realm and have their 
direct bearing on our conscious life, 
such as race, nationality, community, 
parents, temperament, sex, age; influ- 
ences of heredity, instincts, aptitudes, 
habits, etc., besides many other forces, 
all pointing to man's complex nature 
and reminding us of how many of the 
sources of our life lie beneath the con- 
scious plane. 

In the realm of Conscious mental ac- 
tivities we seldom pause to reflect how 
broad and complex is the field covered. 
Here dwell the powers of Sensation and 
91 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Association. Endless is the variety of 
sensations entering our mental life at 
every waking moment through the 
channels of our five senses. Number- 
less are the threads of association by 
which we examine, classify and pigeon- 
hole in our mental library of knowledge 
every sensation we experience. Here 
are the powers of Ideation and Percep- 
tion, by which we translate the knowl- 
edge of the outer world into permanent 
ideas or perceptions of thought, making 
them our actual possessions. Here are 
the manifold powers of Memory, and 
all the infinite variety of Imagination. 
Without memory, past experiences 
would be annihilated for consciousness, 
and present experiences utterly trans- 
formed. Education is alone made pos- 
sible by and through the powers of 
memory. Without imagination con- 
scious life would be hopelessly nar- 
rowed and shut up within the shrunken 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

and contracted self. A deeper-going 
psychology is now revealing how great 
is the just domain of imagination. If 
memory binds us to the past and makes 
possible the education of the self, it is 
imagination that leaps into the future 
and beckons the self onward and up- 
ward. Imagination is the power by 
which we create ideals, enabling us to 
see the self that is to be as potentially 
resident in the self that is. Another 
group of conscious mental powers in- 
cludes conception, thinking, judging, 
knowing, reasoning. These in their or- 
der are like five cylinders of the tele- 
scope, each succeeding larger term in- 
cluding all the preceding. It is obvious 
that they are not severally independent. 
We come at last to the final group of 
conscious powers, including aesthetic 
construction, appreciation and faith. 
This last permeates all of life. Faith 
is the mightiest power we possess. 
93 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Faith, not as synonymous with any be- 
lief, but Faith as a tremendous vital 
force that energizes thought and feel- 
ing and will, is as yet but little under- 
stood. To the one who has entered into 
its deeper meaning all things are pos- 
sible. 

Then there is the Super-conscious 
plane of mental activities, about which 
the great mass of men is still in igno- 
rance but which is winning a fuller and 
clearer recognition from our foremost 
thinkers to-day. To some favored ones 
of earth there come flashes from this 
wonderful region of the mind which we 
call " genius," " inspiration," " intui- 
tion," " revelation," terms denoting 
higher and uncommon mental activities 
and states. This whole realm of the 
super-conscious belongs, as yet, in large 
part to the stage of experiment and 
investigation, and yet we have gone far 
enough to arrive at some tentative con- 
94 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

elusions. We know that the human 
race has been, and is, in the process of 
unfolding. In each individual there is 
stored this great reservoir of future 
mental development. We speak of the 
" geniuses of the race," meaning by 
that, the men and women who have seen 
farther or deeper than others. We 
speak of prophets, meaning those who 
possess an insight, a moral or spiritual 
vision not possessed by their contem- 
poraries. We are all conscious at times 
of the flash of insight into life's mean- 
ing or problems that illuminates our 
whole pathway. We are coming to be- 
lieve to-day that these flashes of genius, 
or of intuition, or of prophetic insight, 
as they come to men and women are 
simply the manifestations in our mental 
life from this higher plane of a super- 
conscious mental activity. These flashes 
do not come from below; they must 
come from above, from that plane 
95 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

toward which the unfolding mental life 
of humanity is tending. There are 
many who are talking about the sixth 
sense. Professor James and other psy- 
chologists recognize as scientifically 
proven, the phenomena of clairvoyance, 
clairaudience and telepathy or thought 
transference. What does this mean, if 
not, that in some individuals there 
seems to have been developed a sense 
or a faculty for seeing at a distance, or 
hearing at a distance, or receiving 
thought waves from a distance? It is 
not at all improbable that the time may 
come when, either by the development 
of new senses or by the refinement and 
still higher development of old powers, 
men generally will be able to receive 
waves of electricity, or waves of mag- 
netism or thought waves, even as now 
they receive waves of light or heat or 
sound. 

But there is a second channel of ex- 
96 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

pression for the Ego, this essence of 
personality, that is found in Feeling 
or the Emotional nature of man's life. 
Desire is really the essence of all feel- 
ing. Before we can love or hate, there 
must be desire. Before we can have 
ambition or aspiration, there must be 
desire. Before we can manifest cour- 
age or energy of any kind, there must 
be desire. Desire is the great motive 
power of life. A man is largely what 
the quality and degree of his desires 
have led him to be. The Ego can and 
should control all desires, but all too 
often the desires control the Ego. The 
quality of desire determines what men- 
tal path we shall travel, but the degree 
determines how far we shall travel. If 
desire " lies at the bottom of all feel- 
ing " in the emotional nature, love lies 
at the top. The truest and noblest type 
of desire is that which finds expression 
in the spirit of love, unselfishness, al- 
97 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

truism. To unify all the manifold and 
complex expressions of one's emotional 
life under the supreme passion of dis- 
interested love, is to make Good-Will 
the dominant motive power of life. 
This is the ideal toward which we strive 
in our endeavors to win the mastery 
over our affections. 

There is still the third channel of ex- 
pression through which the Ego mani- 
fests itself, in the Willing or Voli- 
tional nature of man. Some have 
thought that Will was simply another 
phase of desire or feeling. In its first 
aspect, one's deed or act is so closely 
blended with the primitive desire or im- 
pulse that it is hard to separate the two. 
In its second phase, the will manifests 
itself in what we call " choice " — the 
ability to select and choose between ob- 
jects of desire. It is the act of deter- 
mining, deciding, choosing, etc. This 
making a choice is a complex thing. It 
98 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

means weighing conflicting desires, and 
judging these opposing desires* in the 
light of reason, and making a final de- 
cision between them. 

The third phase of the will is that of 
volition or action. It is seen when the 
determination is put into action, when 
we actually begin to do the thing that 
we have chosen, when we translate our 
determination into the concrete act. 
Here again, we are ushered into a realm 
as wide as life itself, necessarily requir- 
ing separate treatment. The mastery 
of self by the Ego is attained when one 
learns how to control not merely the 
desire, which is the motive power of life, 
but also the mighty instrument that 
carries the desire into execution. Every- 
where are the men and women whose 
desires are right enough, for the most 
part, but whose Wills are too weak to 
translate desire into conduct and char- 
acter. On the other hand, if the Will 
99 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

be educated and strong, it is able to 
dismiss certain desires as wrong, and 
put other desires in their place; it 
can banish discordant and destructive 
thoughts and substitute for them har- 
monious and constructive thinking. The 
Will is the mighty instrument by which 
the Ego, that Something that thinks 
and feels and acts, is able to direct the 
issues of life toward highest and noblest 
ends. 

Now let us attempt to gather into a 
definition the results of our analysis of 
the conception of Personality. Person- 
ality is Reason, Love and Will, bound 
together in Self-conscious unity. These 
three are not separate entities, not di- 
vided fragments of one individual, but 
they are bound together in self-con- 
scious unity. This is what Psychology 
means when it speaks of Personality. 
This is what we have in mind when we 
describe the Evolutionary process as 
100 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

tending towards the goal of Personal- 
ity. This is our thought when we find 
in Personality the end and meaning of 
human destiny. 

May we suggest, in addition to this 
general definition, a tentative statement 
of what we mean by the all-around, 
fully developed and true Personality? 
The true Personality is one who has 
become clearly and profoundly Self- 
conscious; who differentiates between 
the Ego and the Me of his mental life; 
who has entered into the realization of 
the truth that he is not what he thinks 
or feels or wills, but that he is the Some- 
thing that thinks and feels and wills, 
and so, need never be the slave of his 
thoughts or emotions or acts but al- 
ways the Master. This at least must 
be true of the all-around and fully de- 
veloped Personality. With this true 
Self-consciousness will be found a fine 
balance between the intellectual and 
101 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

emotional and volitional natures. There 
are people who are predominatingly 
intellectual; there are others, who are 
predominatingly emotional; there are 
others who are predominatingly active. 
The true, all-around, fully developed 
Personality is the one whose Ego finds 
expression in a beautiful symmetry of 
powers, where the intellect and the 
feeling and the will work together in 
harmonious and perfect accord, where 
there is no " divided will " or " split 
personality " but rather a deep, abiding 
inward unity. In such a Personality, 
the feeling of good-will leads on inevi- 
tably to the right or harmonious 
thought, and the thought is translated 
instantly into the worthy action, or lov- 
ing deed. The True Personality is the 
one whose Ego, so deeply and truly 
self-conscious, has learned how to make 
the largest use of the wondrous instru- 
ments of the mental life with which God 
102 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

has endowed us. He will not be con- 
tent simply with a superficial or clumsy 
handling of memory or imagination, of 
sensation or association, of perception 
or conception, of knowing, or thinking 
or reasoning, but will have so come to 
understand himself and the right use of 
these abilities that his mind becomes 
symmetrically and thoroughly devel- 
oped. And not simply in his conscious 
mental activities will he attain to un- 
dreamed of efficiency, but he will also 
have learned how to draw upon the 
storehouse of the sub-conscious, and 
how to keep himself open and respon- 
sive to the higher influences that come 
from the super-conscious, — .the flashes 
of intuition, or insight, or inspiration 
from above. He will be so " in tune 
with the Infinite mind," that in every 
experience of his life, every phase of his 
complex being, he will be open to light 
and guidance and truth. In his emo- 
103 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

tional life, all selfish desires, all low and 
unworthy impulses will be subordinated 
to the one great principle of good-will; 
so that the motive power of all thoughts 
and actions, resident in our emotional 
natures, shall give expression contin- 
ually to this principle of good-will, the 
spirit of disinterested love. Then will 
he be the Master of his will, able not 
only to control his feelings and bring 
his mind to attention, but to hold them 
in earnest concentration upon the 
thought, the task, the ideal or the enter- 
prise in which he is engaged. 

Is there any greater need in our lives 
than the attainment of such true Per- 
sonality? Does not the world need, 
above all things else, this type of man- 
hood and womanhood? Can the " sal- 
vation of the soul " mean any less, or 
could it mean any more, than this full 
realization of our true Selves? Does 
the ideal seem too lofty? Are the 
104 



WHAT PERSONALITY IS 

heights of Personality too far away to 
ever be reached? Does the attainment 
of true Personality seem too great " an 
adventure " for our lives? 

It cannot be accomplished all at once. 
As we have already seen, it is only the 
beginnings of Personality that we find 
emerging during the adolescent, the 
storm and stress period of youth. As 
we who have reached the mature years 
of manhood and womanhood study our 
own selves, as we look clearly into our 
inner lives, how deeply conscious we are 
that only the first faint beginnings of 
Personality are as yet manifest in us! 
Far beyond stretch the great heights of 
attainment. We see but dimly the 
" promised land." We are, as yet, 
dwellers in the valley, and the lofty 
peaks tower far above us. Let us re- 
member that Personality is a growing 
thing, that it is never completed. We 
are not all here when we are born into 
105 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

this world; we are not all here in our 
manhood and womanhood now; we are 
in the constant and continual process of 
becoming; we are growing up into 
" the perfect man." The one essential 
thing is that we shall come to under- 
stand who we are, and what powers and 
capacities we possess; and then, if we 
intelligently and persistently give our- 
selves to the developing of this won- 
drous life within, we shall one day ful- 
fill all the rich meaning of human des- 
tiny. 

" Man knows partly but conceives beside, 
Creeps ever on from fancies to the fact, 
And in this striving, this converting air 
Into a solid he may grasp and use, 
Finds progress, man's distinctive mark alone, 
Not God's and not the beasts: God is, they 

are, 
Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be." 



106 




THE MASTERY OF THE 
AFFECTIONS 

N our analysis of the concep- 
tion of Personality, we have 
found it to consist of Heart, 
Mind and Will bound to- 
gether in self-conscious unity; or, the 
Emotional nature, the Intellectual na- 
ture, and the Volitional nature finding 
their unity in the self-conscious Ego. 
We need to remember that these are not 
three separate psychic entities but 
rather three modes of expression of the 
" Ego," that Something that stands be- 
hind all mental states as the Feeler, the 
Thinker, the Wilier. 

We are now ready to consider more 
in detail the powers and possibilities of 
107 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

each of these aspects of our mental life. 
At this time we shall confine our atten- 
tion to man's Emotional nature. As is 
clearly evident, the field is so vast that 
the most we can do is to select the more 
salient facts and seek to show their bear- 
ing on the development of Personality. 
The first thing to be noted is the pri- 
mary place that the Emotions hold in 
life. The natural history of every act, 
deed, or word of our lives, is first, 
the impulse or feeling; secondly, the 
thought; and thirdly, the expression of 
the feeling or thought in the concrete 
act or word. All actions can be traced 
back ultimately to the primary impulse 
or feeling. What we do depends upon 
our desires, either controlled and trans- 
formed, or else accentuated and has- 
tened by our thoughts. The first step 
in all mental activity is a certain feeling, 
impulse or desire, that, if allowed to 
continue, is immediately translated into 
108 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

kindred thoughts; as thoughts mingle 
with this feeling, it becomes steadily 
more pronounced and tends inevitably 
toward the appropriate expression in 
word or deed. This is not only good 
psychology, it is true religion. The an- 
cient writers, who, in our Old and New 
Testaments, use the word " Heart " as 
the symbol of man's emotional nature, 
may have been totally ignorant of the 
principles of modern psychology, nev- 
ertheless, they grasped this great truth 
that psychology is expressing so clearly 
to-day, viz., that it is the primary feel- 
ings or emotions that find expression 
ultimately in the actions of our lives. 
If we paraphrase the words, " Keep thy 
heart with all diligence, for out of it 
are the issues of life," they really mean, 
" Guard zealously your impulses, feel- 
ings and desires, because out of these 
primary emotions spring ultimately the 
decisive actions of your life." The fa- 
109 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

miliar verse, "As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he," may be translated to 
read, " As a man thinks, not in cold 
blood apart from his feelings, but in 
conjunction with them, — his thoughts 
moulded and fired by his feelings, - — so 
is that man in his true character." Ac- 
cording to these thinkers, the essence of 
real religion is identical with the essence 
of true psychology, viz., in the mastery 
of the Emotional Nature and the 
proper direction of the Feelings which 
constitute the motive power of life. 

It is very difficult to define Emotion, 
and yet every one recognizes just what 
is meant by the word. Emotion is the 
term employed to describe the " feel- 
ing " side of our mental activities as 
distinguished from sensation, thought 
or volition. When we speak of the 
mental state known as " feeling," we 
do not mean sensation. A sensation is 
the result produced upon our mentality 
110 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

by some internal or external physical 
substance. A " feeling " is a mental 
state producing an experience of pleas- 
ure or pain in some degree or combina- 
tion. There is but little difference be- 
tween what we call " feeling," as used 
in this sense, and what we call " emo- 
tion." The difference is largely one of 
degree. Feeling is the simple form of 
Emotion, or Emotion is the more com- 
plex form of Feeling. " An emotion 
is a mental state composed of a number 
of feelings — a complex state of feel- 
ing." 

Whence arise these primary emotions 
of life? For the average person who 
thinks at all about it, the matter of the 
origin of desires and feeling is veiled in 
mystery. He knows that they are not 
evolved from his reason, for they seem 
to spring unbidden into consciousness, 
as it were, from nowhere. But the psy- 
chologist knows that every mental state 
111 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

has its preceding cause. There is but 
one answer to the question — all feel- 
ings emerge from the subconscious re- 
gion of our lives. Emotion may arise 
from the consciousness of some object 
outside one's-self, or from the memory 
of some occurrence, or from imagina- 
tion in which some thing or some occur- 
rence is pictured to the mind. 

Emotion is not a matter of reason or 
will — it belongs to the subconscious re- 
gion of mentation. Like all other sub- 
conscious mentation, it has its rela- 
tion to something in the past — some- 
thing that has been put into the sub- 
conscious mind. These past impres- 
sions may have been recorded in the 
subconscious mind during the life of 
the individual, in which case their emer- 
gence into the field of consciousness is 
caused by an involuntary call upon the 
memory. Or the past impression may 
be one of those remarkable race-mem- 
112 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 
ories, coming to us down the passage 
of time according to the law of hered- 
ity and recalled involuntarily. In 
either case the result is the same — an 
emergence from the subconscious re- 
gion of some impression or series of 
impressions from the past, arousing in 
us strong feelings and mental excite- 
ment. The elemental feelings, pain 
and pleasure, are the result of impres- 
sions produced by certain objects 
throughout the ages, which have regis- 
tered themselves on the subconscious 
mind, and are transmitted through the 
subconscious from generation to gen- 
eration. 

Think of your own life, for a mo- 
ment. You find in yourself certain 
emotional tendencies which have al- 
ways been there. It may be a tendency 
toward melancholy or else toward 
cheerfulness, toward impatience and 
the exhibition of temper or toward 
113 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

good-nature, toward suspicion and dis- 
trust or toward trust and confidence in 
people and things, toward the lower 
forms of sensual excitement or else 
toward the higher pleasures of your 
rational or aesthetic nature. Whence 
come these tendencies so characteristic 
of your life, and known to you if not 
to others? You say you were born 
with them, they are a part of yourself. 
If it were possible to clearly trace them, 
we should find that the great majority 
of these emotional tendencies of our 
lives are due to prenatal influences 
which registered themselves on the sub- 
conscious mind of the unborn child, and 
find expression later in the characteris- 
tic emotional traits of the individual. 
It is to these hidden sources that we 
are tracing more and more clearlv all 
abnormal tendencies in the life of the 
child which parents often find so inex- 
plicable. 

114 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

It is self-evident that we are not re- 
sponsible, in the sense of being blame- 
worthy, for the tendencies with which 
we are born. We had no voice in the 
matter whatever. But it is profoundly 
true that we are responsible for what 
we do with these inborn tendencies of 
our lives. We can take the fatalistic 
position, as most people do, and say 
■ This is my nature. I was born with 
these tendencies. I have inherited them. 
I cannot change them." This is to 
abdicate the throne of our true Self- 
hood and become the slave of our emo- 
tions. It is the surest and most com- 
mon way of depersonalizing one-self 
and thus becoming a mere nobodj^. Or, 
we can recognize the supreme authority 
of the " Ego " in our lives, and ascend- 
ing the throne of our Selfhood we can 
master every tendency of our nature, 
and so control our impulses and feel- 
ings as to make them our obedient serv- 
115 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 
ants. It is the truth of the old proverb 
— "We may not prevent the birds 
from alighting in our hair, but we can 
certainly keep them from building 
their nests there." We are not born 
into this world just to accept ourselves 
as we are, weaknesses and all. We are 
here to grow the true Personality, and 
that means the mastering of every ten- 
dency, the controlling and directing to 
highest ends of all forms of Emotion. 

The varieties of Emotion are innu- 
merable. Psychologists have attempted 
to classify them under a great many 
different names. It is not necessary 
for our purpose to attempt a complete 
enumeration of all forms of feeling. It 
is only necessary to differentiate be- 
tween the emotions which are injurious 
to life and character, and those which 
are helpful. We may divide all forms 
of Emotion into two classes: the De- 
structive or Negative emotions, and the 
116 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

Constructive or Positive emotions. 
Under Destructive emotions would 
naturally come all forms of anger, 
hate, greed, lust, envy, jealousy, pride, 
and all similar malign feelings; also, 
excessive grief, regret, remorse, dis- 
couragement, disappointment ; all 
forms of fear, doubt and uncertainty; 
the undue feeling of responsibility, 
anxiety, worry and despair; the feel- 
ing of condemnation of all kinds, espe- 
cially self-condemnation, with its mor- 
bid self-consciousness, self-abasement 
and shame. These names do not in- 
clude all forms of destructive emotions 
but they serve to suggest the general 
forms of injurious feelings to which 
our natures are most susceptible. 

Under Constructive emotions, we 
would include naturally, all feelings 
that are the opposites of those just 
named. All forms of love, including 
kindness, thoughtfulness, considera- 
117 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

tion, sympathy, helpfulness, gentle- 
ness, tenderness, charitableness; also 
courage, patience, cheerfulness, hope, 
peace, confidence, faith, trust. These 
are terms used to describe certain men- 
tal moods in which the feeling element 
may be intense or subdued, may find 
outward expression or be restrained, 
and yet they are all the manifestation 
of our emotional life. They are all 
positive and tend inevitably toward the 
upbuilding of life and the development 
of Personality. 

We are indebted to modern Psychol- 
ogy for demonstrating the extent of 
the influence of these different forms of 
Emotion on the physical, mental and 
moral life of man. Prof. Elmer T. 
Gates, of the Smithsonian Institute, 
has given many years of his life to this 
particular field of investigation. His 
conclusions are very definite and are 
shared by all our leading psychologists. 
118 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

" Every mental activity creates a defi- 
nite chemical change and a definite ana- 
tomical structure in the animal which 
exercises the mental activity. The mind 
can, if properly directed, produce meas- 
urable changes in the chemistry of the 
secretions and excretions. " He also 
says: " If mind activities create chem- 
ical and anatomical changes in the cells 
and tissues of the physical body, it fol- 
lows that all physiological processes of 
health or disease are psychologic proc- 
esses, and that the only way to inhibit, 
accelerate or change these processes is 
by changing the psychologic or mental 
processes." His conclusions as to the 
injurious effects of the destructive 
emotions are most emphatic: " Every 
emotion of a false or disagreeable na- 
ture produces a poison in the blood and 
cell tissue. My experiments show that 
irascible, malevolent and depressing 
emotions generate in the system injuri- 
119 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ous compounds, some of which are ex- 
tremely poisonous; also that agreeable, 
happy emotions generate chemical com- 
pounds of nutritious value which stim- 
ulate the cells to manufacture new en- 
ergy." 

Dr. Richard Cabot, of the Harvard 
Medical School, in a recent address on 
the Progress of Medical Science, spoke 
of the tendency to-day in Medicine to 
recognize the psycho-physical man in 
all diagnosis and treatment of disease. 
If we could know how to regulate 
mind processes, then we could most 
successfully cure disease. Behind every 
form of physical disorder there are 
mental conditions that either cause or 
contribute largefy to the physical con- 
ditions. All intelligent physicians, 
whether they profess belief in psycho- 
therapeutics or not, frankly admit that 
there is nothing so helpful in the resto- 
ration of the body to normal conditions, 
120 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

as to induce in the mind of the indi- 
vidual the feelings described as con- 
structive and positive. If you can 
bring the patient into the hopeful and 
courageous mood, if you can awaken 
in the heart and mind the faith atti- 
tude, if you can change any discordant 
feeling into its opposite, if you can fill 
the life with good cheer, kindliness and 
love, you have created the chief condi- 
tions making for physical harmony and 
health. 

It is rather humiliating to be told 
that in every single instance of our 
lives we do the things that we want to 
do, and yet this is the strictly scientific 
truth. How many times we hear peo- 
ple say, " I never meant to speak as I 
did. I spoke in a moment of impa- 
tience. I forgot myself! " How many 
times we hear the pathetic words, " I 
never intended to do that thing. I did 
not stop to think what it involved. I 
121 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

did not want to commit such an act! " 
How many such sad regrets there are in 
every life! As a matter of fact, the 
thing we do or the thing we say is 
the thing that at that particular mo- 
ment we want to do or say, above 
everything else. A moment later 
when reason has asserted itself and we 
begin to think, then we see the folly 
or the wickedness of allowing the im- 
pulse or emotion to rush into its natural 
and logical expression; but the fact 
remains that the things we do and say 
are the things that at the particular 
moment we " desire " to do and say. 
Let us face it frankly : — we all do the 
things we desire to do. It is just here 
that the real tragedy of human lives 
takes place. We are all doing and 
saying things that are not the true ex- 
pression of the real Self. They pro- 
ceed from the uncontrolled impulse or 
emotion that for the time being mas- 
122 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

ters the Ego, and thus humiliates or 
disgraces the real Self. As we have 
seen, the essence of all feeling is desire. 
We could not experience love or hatred 
without desire. We could not know 
courage or ambition without desire. 
At the bottom of all " feeling " is de- 
sire. And so the impulses or feelings 
out of which our actions proceed rep- 
resent, at the time, our actual desires. 
Herein lies the fundamental weakness 
of manhood and womanhood. We go 
on day after day, so completely the 
victims of our emotions, our feelings 
and our impulses, so ignorant of the 
principles by which this source of Life's 
real motive power may be controlled 
and directed in the direction of giving 
expression to the true Self, that we are 
constantly doing and saying things 
that cause regret and sorrow and 
shame. 

Thus the problem for every life 
123 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

stands forth clear and definite: How 
can I gain the mastery over myself, 
not only as respects the ultimate ac- 
tions of life, but, what is far more fun- 
damental, as respects the primary feel- 
ings and impulses out of which all 
thoughts and actions proceed? How 
can I gain the control over my emotions 
and enlist them in the service of the 
highest and noblest ends? What is the 
true method of winning the victory 
over the sources of Life's true motive 
power? It is here that we realize the 
profound debt we owe to modern Psy- 
chology, which has thrown such a tre- 
mendous light upon the meaning and 
possibilities of the true Self. 

As the first practical suggestion: 
We need above all things to study our 
own selves from the view-point of our 
emotional natures. It is unfortunately 
time that very few have done this in 
any earnest and thorough-going way. 
124 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

We all know that we have certain emo- 
tional tendencies which are constantly 
leading us into trouble. We are con- 
scious that our impulses are every day 
getting the best of us in various ways. 
We realize, when we stop to reflect, 
that @ur feelings rule us far more often 
than we rule them. But beyond these 
general facts most of us have not 
stopped to inquire. Perhaps we have 
not understood the real cause of our 
frequent failures, and so our efforts to 
overcome the weakness have been fruit- 
less. Suppose you sit down, face to 
face with your emotional nature and 
endeavor to analyze it in its real 
sources. Seek to discover where you 
are strong emotionally and where you 
are weak. Find out which of these de- 
structive emotions seem to be specially 
characteristic of your life, or to which 
of them you are most prone to yield. 
Find out also which of the constructive 
125 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

emotions seem to be the natural ten- 
dencies of your life. It will be of tre- 
mendous help, first of all, to state to 
yourself in clear and definite terms just 
what the problem of self-mastery in 
your life really involves. Remember, 
you are not responsible for the presence 
of these " natural tendencies " in your 
life, but you certainly are responsible 
for controlling and regulating them. 
Lay your finger boldly on the impulse 
that should be mastered or directed, 
and look gratefully upon those im- 
pulses and tendencies that are positive 
and upbuilding in their nature. Know 
yourself. 

In the next place: Remember that 
all emotions are subject to the Law of 
Habit. Habit has been the greatest 
blessing and, at the same time, the 
greatest curse of man's life. If habits 
are desirable they serve to direct one's 
life in the right direction. As the habit 
126 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

continues, it becomes easier and easier 
to do the right thing until, by and by, 
it is done habitually and automatically, 
so that we say it has become " second 
nature " to do the right. But if the 
habits are undesirable, their influence is 
just as strong in the wrong direction 
until we find ourselves habitually doing 
the wrong thing. What is the psychol- 
ogy of habit? There is a tendency of 
the mind to travel the beaten paths of 
mental activity. If you think a certain 
thought once, it is easier to think that 
same thought a second time. If you 
feel a certain feeling or give expression 
to a certain emotion once, it is always 
easier to feel the same emotion again. 
If you do a certain thing to-day, it is 
easier to do the thing to-morrow. Our 
mental states seem to carve out certain 
beaten paths, and the mind, in accord- 
ance with a profound law, follows the 
path of least resistance. It does again 
127 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the things that it has done before, be- 
cause it is easier and requires less effort. 

The mental path is a part of the sub- 
conscious mind, and therefore it is that 
this region dominates the greater part 
of our mental life. Instead of attack- 
ing the habit by sheer will power, which 
is often a long and heart-breaking task, 
seek to neutralize the old habitual im- 
pressions by building up in the sub- 
conscious a new set of impressions di- 
rectly opposed to the old ones you wish 
to be rid of. In other words, kill out 
the old habits by building up new ones, 
or still more specifically — make new 
mental paths, and travel over them as 
often as possible. The fundamental 
law of habit is Repetition. 

Therefore if you wish to cultivate 
any one of the constructive emotions, 
repeat it by careful and constant prac- 
tice and exercise until it becomes habit- 
ual. If you wish to restrain or over- 
128 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

come any one of the destructive emo- 
tions, refuse to allow it to manifest it- 
self, as much as possible; confine it to 
as little outward expression as possible 
when it does manifest itself; prevent 
the corresponding physical expression 
as much as possible; and above all, cul- 
tivate the emotion exactly opposite to 
the one you wish to restrain. This 
method, if faithfully pursued, will re- 
sult in neutralizing the power of emo- 
tional habits where the Will alone has 
utterly failed. 

In the third place: Remember the 
Law of Physical Expression as related 
to Emotions. That is, when you in- 
dulge the physical expression of an 
emotion you tend to produce the emo- 
tion itself; and conversely, if you re- 
strain the physical expression of an 
emotion you tend to check the emotion 
itself. There is constant action and 
reaction between all mental states and 
129 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the physical organism, and so every 
form of emotion has its corresponding 
physical expression. For instance, you 
are feeling cheerful and happy, the 
corners of your mouth unconsciously 
go up and little wrinkles appear around 
your eyes, and you are smiling. Or, 
you are sad and depressed, the corners 
of the mouth unconsciously droop, and 
your face takes on an entirely different 
expression and your whole attitude is 
changed. These are the physical ex- 
pressions of these particular forms of 
feeling, and every form of feeling has 
its corresponding physical expression. 
This truth has never been so well or so 
authoritatively stated as by Professor 
Wm. James in his " Psychology," 
where he says : " Refuse to express a 
passion, and it dies. Count ten before 
venting your anger, and its occasion 
will seem ridiculous. Whistling to keep 
up your courage is no mere figure of 
130 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

speech. If you keep on whistling long 
enough your courage will come back. 
On the other hand, sit all day in a mo- 
ping posture, sigh, and reply to every- 
thing with a dismal voice, and your 
melancholy lingers. If we wish to con- 
quer undesirable emotional tendencies 
in ourselves, we must assiduously and in 
the first instance cold-bloodedly, go 
through the outward movement of these 
contrary dispositions which we prefer to 
cultivate. The reward of persistence 
will infallibly come, in the fading out of 
the sullenness or depression, and the 
advent of real cheerfulness and kindli- 
ness in their stead. Smooth the brow, 
brighten the eye, contract the dorsal 
rather than the ventral aspect of the 
frame, speak in a major key, pass the 
genial compliment, and your heart must 
be frigid indeed if it does not gradually 
thaw." 

How weak we are, how easily we give 
131 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

way to our moods, how constantly we 
excuse ourselves for these emotional 
tendencies on the ground that it is our 
" nature," that we " inherited " such a 
temperament! But we can control 
these emotions if we want to. It may 
not be easy at first, it may take great 
perseverance and patience on our part, 
but anything that is worth achieving 
requires effort. It is simply a question 
of whether we desire to develop in our- 
selves the full, complete, symmetrical 
personality, or whether we prefer to go 
through life the helpless victims of our 
emotions. 

A third practical suggestion is this: 
Use your Imagination in the direction 
of reproducing the emotions or feelings 
that you desire to cultivate. Go over 
the constructive emotions in your imag- 
ination often, framing a vivid mental 
picture of the outward circumstances or 
conditions calculated to arouse the de- 
132 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

sired feelings. With each repetition 
you will strengthen the impression upon 
the records of your subconscious men- 
tality and tend to establish the habit of 
the emotion you desire. To those who 
do not understand the creative power of 
the Imagination all this may appear 
absurd or a waste of time. But when 
one realizes that the Imagination is not 
mere fancy, but an active, potent fac- 
ulty of the mind, it will be seen that this 
exercise of the imagination means noth- 
ing less than the building of new emo- 
tional paths in the subconscious region, 
over which the impulses and feelings 
will soon grow accustomed to tread. 

The last suggestion is this: Do not 
lose sight of the importance of employ- 
ing the Will, that mighty instrument of 
the Ego for the accomplishment of its 
definite desires. It is not necessary to 
make frantic or violent use of the Will 
in this connection. But hold the Will 
133 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

firmly to the task of imaging to the 
mind the desired emotion. Or, if an un- 
desirable emotion is to be restrained, 
use the Will to say " No! " to it. The 
use of the Will in the direction of the 
mastering of all emotional tendencies is 
one of its noblest uses. By the Will, 
attention and interest can be turned 
away from the undesirable feeling that 
has arisen, and in thus shutting off all 
mental nourishment, the feeling is 
bound to quickly die. 

We have seen that Desire is at the 
bottom of all forms of feeling, and De- 
sire is the psychological term for " af- 
fection." The things we desire, are the 
things we really love. So we see that 
this Emotional nature of ours becomes 
psychologically, the Affectional nature, 
and we can sum up all the various com- 
plex forms of emotion or feeling, as re- 
spects their higher manifestations, in 
the great word " Love." Ultimately, 
134 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

we do the things we desire, or love. 
And further, we become like what we 
desire or love. 

It is tremendously significant to find 
that Jesus, " who spake as never man 
spake," sums up all religion and all of 
life in this one word " Love." The Law 
and the Prophets, he says, are included 
in love to God and love to man. He is 
not much concerned about other princi- 
ples, he cares nothing for dogmas as 
such, but he taught that if Love ruled 
at the center of life, and the spirit of 
love was the motive power of all 
thoughts and actions, everything else 
of beauty and worth would follow as a 
matter of course. 

In that wonderful Poem of Love, the 
13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, Paul 
gives expression to the same truth when 
he says, " And now abideth Faith, 
Hope and Love, but the greatest of 
these is Love." No more wonderful 
135 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

analysis of Love's breadth and power 
has ever been written. 

Do you not see how, in this concep- 
tion of the place and function of the 
emotional nature in man's life, we find 
Science and Religion clasping hands in 
perfect agreement as to the true method 
of realizing the highest and noblest Per- 
sonality? For centuries, Religion has 
taught that out of the heart, or the 
emotional nature, are the real issues of 
life. And Jesus proclaimed the final 
truth of religion when he taught that 
the highest life is the one whose whole 
thought and purpose proceed from the 
motive power of disinterested Love. 
Science, through modern psychology, 
arrives at the same conclusion as it 
teaches us how to fill the life with the 
constructive emotions that alone up- 
build, and how to put out of life all 
forms of destructive emotion. Psychol- 
ogy tells us that if we would be right, we 
136 



MASTERY OF THE AFFECTIONS 

must make right our emotional natures. 
If you would become the great personal- 
ity, master yourself back there in the 
hidden sources whence all emotions 
spring. Let life proceed from Love as 
its source, and life's problem is solved. 
This is just as truly the great conclu- 
sion of Religion. It is solemnly true, 
that people are largely what their emo- 
tions have made them. All about us 
are men and women who would be 
strong characters but for some defect 
or flaw or weakness. In every instance, 
these weaknesses can be traced back to 
their source in the emotional nature, — 
some lack of control or regulation or de- 
velopment of the primary impulses and 
feelings of the life. But we become 
hopeful when we remember, that if we 
are largely what our' motions have made 
us, every individual can make his emo- 
tions what he will. There is no limit to 
the powers of the Ego to control and 
137 , 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

master, to educate and direct, to enno- 
ble and refine all forms of emotion so 
that they shall at length become the 
servants of the Ego, and can be trusted 
to discharge its high behests. 

Uncontrolled feelings in human life 
are like the horses that have run away 
with the stagecoach, while the driver sits 
helpless on the box unable to check 
their speed. But the driver — the Ego 

— once awakened to a sense of his 
power, grasps the reins firmly and in- 
telligently, and little by little succeeds 
in bringing these " flying steeds " under 
perfect control. It may be the task of 
a lifetime, but that is what we are here 
for ; and we shall never make real head- 
way in the attainment of character and 
the development of true Personality, 
until we gain the mastery, in that place 
whence arises the great motive power of 
all Life's thoughts and words and deeds 

— the Emotional nature of our lives. 

138 




THE TRAINING OF THE 
MIND 

HE power of the Mind on its 
" thinking side " is the grand- 
est fact, and at the same time, 
the mightiest force in human 
existence; and yet there is no power 
that is so little understood or so unintel- 
ligently used. Thought is the great 
building power but with most of us it 
works to no plan or specification. The 
thinking of the great mass of people is 
like the work of a crazy carpenter, who, 
though always busy, keeps on pounding 
nails and sawing planks or planing 
boards at random, without definite pur- 
pose. 

Just in proportion as we divine the 
139 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

laws of anything, we harness it for serv- 
ice. Electricity as a force has been in 
the world since the beginning of the ma- 
terial universe, but until quite recently 
it was useless because men did not un- 
derstand the laws which controlled and 
governed its expression. So, as re- 
spects the power of thought, it is only 
quite recently that men have come to 
understand clearly the laws that make 
for the highest mental development, 
and the method of applying these laws 
in the cultivation of true personality. 
This is in no sense to belittle the won- 
derful manifestations of thought which 
have been finding expression since the 
beginning of human history. What- 
ever we know to-day of truth or worth 
or beauty, is due to the power of man's 
thought in the past. 

Nevertheless, the distinguishing fea- 
ture of our age is the more intelligent 
appreciation of the power of thought, 
140 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

not simply in achieving results outside, 
but especially in its influence upon the 
development of the inner life and char- 
acter of man. Geologists tell us that 
ages ago, before the British Isles be- 
came separated from the mainland, 
England was inhabited by vast num- 
bers of wild and ferocious beasts — 
bears, tigers, lions, elephants, etc. Con- 
temporaneous with these animals there 
was another being, very much weaker 
physically, without the claws, the tusks, 
the strength, or the speed which the 
others possessed. This human being 
was almost defenseless. Had a being 
from a neighboring planet been asked 
to prophesy, he would undoubtedly 
have said that this helpless animal 
would be the first to be exterminated. 
But the ferocious beasts were denied 
one thing that the human being pos- 
sessed — the power of progressive 
thought. And as time went on every 
141 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

one of these fierce creatures succumbed 
either to the change of climate or else to 
man's inferior strength. The land sank, 
the sea cut England off from the main- 
land, the climate changed, and even the 
strongest animals were helpless. But 
man changed his clothing with the 
changing climate. He made fires; he 
built huts for protection, he thought out 
means to kill or else subdue the strong- 
est animals, and so he laid the founda- 
tions for human civilization. Had the 
wild animals possessed the power of 
progressive thought they could have 
combined, and it would have easily been 
possible for them to exterminate man 
before he reached the civilized stage. 

Herein lies the difference between the 
mind of man and the rudimentary men- 
tal processes as we find them in the ani- 
mals. The animals of this generation 
repeat over again, in the same way, the 
things which their ancestors have done 
142 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

for generations before them. Birds 
build their nests, beavers their huts, bees 
their honey-combs, foxes their holes, 
just as they have done for ages. It is 
as if their mental processes have become 
set or crystallized. Man alone is cap- 
able of progressive thought. He makes 
new discoveries, widens his horizon, 
adapts himself to changes, draws new 
conclusions from old facts, looks at 
everything continually from new view- 
points. Man no longer sleeps in caves, 
or lives in smoke-filled huts, or eats raw 
flesh, or travels on his feet, or even by 
horses. All the wondrous wealth of 
comfort and convenience and luxury 
that make modern civilization what it 
is, have alone been made possible 
through the progressive thinking of 
man. 

There is no lack of thought activity 
in the world to-day. This is pre-emi- 
nently a thinking as well as an active 
143 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

age, keen, busy and intense. There 
never was a time when there was so 
much outward research and investiga- 
tion of every kind. There is scarcely a 
subject, — the obscure chapters of his- 
tory, the hidden secrets of the natural 
sciences, the mysterious forces at work 
in the social organism, nothing so small 
or so great, so high or so low, — but is 
being explored to-day by the mind of 
man. Man's thought centers itself 
upon every known subject except its 
own wonderful potency and ability. It 
knows about everything but itself. For 
this reason we should welcome with 
gratitude, the increasing number of 
those who are seeking to discover the 
wide range and the limitless possibilities 
of our mental powers. 

We are all giving expression daily to 
many different forms of thought activ- 
ity, but when we pause to reflect, who 
of us is not keenly conscious of a woeful 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

lack of mental efficiency? We know 
that we possess, in our mind, a wonder- 
fully complex instrument. We realize, 
somewhat vaguely to be sure, that the 
different faculties of the mind can be 
trained to perform their special tasks 
with ease, precision and efficiency. We 
meet from time to time men and women, 
whose high mental development make 
us feel what can be done by and 
through these powers. At the same 
time we realize that we do not know how 
to use this mental apparatus, that we 
are not beginning to get out of our men- 
tal equipment all that we might. It is 
not only the consciousness that our fund 
of information is so limited, that we 
know so little about anything, or that 
the storehouse of memory is so meagrely 
filled with things that are worth while; 
there is also the realization that in our 
daily work, as we confront the emer- 
gencies or problems of life, we are help- 
145 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

lessly inefficient to achieve the best re- 
sults. 

One of the striking characteristics of 
our day is the new appreciation of the 
value and need of physical culture. To 
judge from the advertisements of phys- 
ical culture teachers or establishments, 
there must be a vast multitude of peo- 
ple whose interest is turning in the di- 
rection of increasing the efficiency of 
the physical body, and bringing a 
greater degree of symmetry and health 
into the physical life. This is a step in 
the right direction. It is one of the 
hopeful signs of our time, for a sound 
and efficient body certainly constitutes 
the physical basis for a sound and effi- 
cient mind. But the question arises, 
how many of these same people who are 
giving the extra time every day to some 
form of physical culture, or who have 
gone into some one of the various forms 
of out-door exercise for the sake of in- 
146 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

creasing the efficiency of their bodies, 
have ever stopped to ask seriously 
whether there is not something that they 
might do to increase the efficiency of 
their minds? " The average physical 
body is a very complicated affair, it is 
sadly out of order, and happily, it is 
susceptible to culture. But the aver- 
age mind is a still more complicated af- 
fair, it is certainly none the less sadly 
out of order, and perhaps, it is a great 
deal more susceptible to culture. The 
enthusiasm for developing the muscles 
of the body is to be commended, but it 
does not occur to us that the mind has 
its flabby muscles as well as the body, 
that our mental apparatus is far less ef- 
ficient than it ought to be, that some of 
our faculties are atrophied, some 
starved and others misshapen. Is it not 
time that we awoke to the realization 
that our minds are like the liver of the 
patent medicine advertisement, — slug- 
147 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

gish, and for the sluggishness of our 
minds there is the excuse neither of in- 
competence, nor of lack of time, nor of 
lack of opportunity, nor of lack of 
means." Mr. Arnold Bennett recently 
sent out a number of letters to various 
men and women, asking as to their ex- 
perience in this matter of mental effi- 
ciency. In summing up the replies re- 
ceived, he concludes that there is a vast 
number of people who are keenly con- 
scious of their mental shortcomings, 
and who desire more or less strongly to 
attain to greater mental power, but who, 
for the most part, seem to be at a loss 
as to how best to go about it. These 
letters furnish suggestions as to the 
cause of mental inefficiency. One says, 
" The trouble is the lack of will-power." 
Another finds the cause in " The ina- 
bility to concentrate my mind." An- 
other says, " I do not know how to be- 
gin in this matter of mental culture." 
148 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

Still another writes, " My mental ap- 
paratus is out of order to start with, 
and I do not know how to get it 
straight." But few of the writers sug- 
gest a program that would be generally 
practical or helpful. Do we realize the 
real force of the situation? 

A man of sedentary habits feels that 
he has been too closely confined of late, 
and when Sunday comes he goes for a 
long walk, and comes home at night so 
utterly exhausted he can scarcely eat. 
He wakes up suddenly to the ineffi- 
ciency of his body, and determines to 
try remedial measures at once. Forth- 
with he decides to walk to his office, or 
play golf, or begin some systematic 
form of physical culture. Imagine the 
same man, after the usual diet of news- 
papers and magazines and light novels, 
taking his mind out some day for a stiff 
climb among the rocks of a scientific or 
philosophical or literary or artistic sub- 
149 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ject. What will be the result? In nine 
cases out of ten, he will find himself 
after fifteen minutes of such reading, 
so out of breath mentally that he will 
toss the book aside with the feeling that 
it is not interesting, it is too heavy, or 
at least, that he is not equal to it. 
Would such an experience with his 
mind arouse him as did the experience 
with his body, so that he would say, 
" This is a serious matter, and I must 
immediately take steps to see what can 
be done to increase the efficiency of my 
mind ; I find I am not able to read con- 
secutively for half an hour a serious 
piece of writing; my mental apparatus 
must be attended to? " Unfortunately, 
in the great majority of cases he will 
form no such resolve; he never opens 
that book again; he is quite content to 
leave his mental machinery in status 
quo; he is not even ashamed, and feels 
no keen regret for his mental ineffi- 
150 



THE TRAINING OF THE MINI) 

ciency. Is not this to a large degree 
true of every one of us? We can be 
tremendously interested and aroused 
when we begin to feel that there is 
something lacking in the efficiency of 
our bodies; and yet, we are compara- 
tively unmoved when the fact of our 
mental sluggishness and the slow decay 
of our mental powers is forced upon us. 
All about us are men and women who 
are alive mentally, keen, alert and 
thoughtful, as we are not. They are no 
less busy than we are, but they are 
gleaning knowledge from a thousand 
sources, while we are content to merely 
skim life's surface in the narrow path 
we tread. They are growing, while we 
are stagnating. And yet every one 
knows that the years are swiftly pass- 
ing, that there are just twenty- four 
hours in the day, and that we can and 
actually do, do the things we really 
want to do. The simple fact is, we do 
151 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

not strongly enough desire to increase 
our mental efficiency; if we did, we 
would surely find some way. 

It is clearly evident, however, that 
there are many people who are truly 
ashamed of their lack of mental ability 
and who realize that under proper and 
intelligent instruction they might be- 
come vastly more efficient than they 
are. They are eager for any practical 
suggestions that would guide them in 
their task of mental culture. It is in 
this class of people that we are just 
now especially interested, for if the De- 
sire be only strong enough, the results 
can be attained. 

As we have seen, true personality de- 
mands the highest possible degree of 
mental efficiency. The achievement of 
personality involves the full recognition 
and understanding of all the mental 
faculties with which we have been en- 
dowed. It also implies the balance and 
152 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

S3 r mmetry of these powers; so that no 
one who aspires to Personality can ig- 
nore the principles that make for com- 
plete and well-rounded mental develop- 
ment. 

The first thing to remember, in a pre- 
liminary way, is the fact that the Brain 
centers of thought can be developed by 
exercise. This has been demonstrated 
again and again. This is not to say that 
the mind and the brain are identical. 
The old theory that the brain produces 
thought just as the liver produces bile, 
is no longer held by scholars. But it is 
to say, that the physical brain is the or- 
gan of our conscious mind and that one 
of the first requisites for a good mind 
is a good brain. The operations of our 
conscious mind are accompanied by cer- 
tain molecular changes in the gray mat- 
ter of the Brain. We see the two work- 
ing together. This is all that science 
can say. Science has not proved nor 
153 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

does it affirm that the Mind depends on 
the Brain for its existence. But it has 
been proven by experiment that the 
brain-cells concerned with the exercise 
of special mental faculties, are greatly 
multiplied by the active use of those 
particular faculties. It has also been 
proven that disuse, or neglect of special 
mental faculties tends to cause a proc- 
ess akin to atrophy in the brain-cells 
concerned in those particular forms of 
mental activity. It has been ascer- 
tained that the education of a child is 
accompanied by an increase and devel- 
opment of the brain-cells connected 
with the particular fields of thought in 
which the child is exercised. 

In view of the above, there is no ques- 
tion but that the various thought cen- 
ters in the brain can be tremendously 
developed by the exercise of our mental 
faculties. There is a close analogy be- 
tween the exercise of the brain-cells and 
154 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

the exercise of the muscles of the body. 
Both respond to reasonable exercise; 
both are injured by overwork; both de- 
generate by disuse. If you put your 
arm in a sling and carry it there for a 
time, the muscle will lose its vigor and 
skill. Inaction means death to the 
muscle. An inactive mind loses tone 
and strength like an unused muscle; 
the mental powers go to rust through 
idleness and inaction. To develop the 
faculties of the mind and secure their 
highest efficiency, there must be the con- 
stant and judicious exercise of these 
faculties. Mental exercise is thus the 
first law of mental development. This 
is the reason, after neglect of certain 
mental faculties, that one finds it so dif- 
ficult to bring them into active use 
again. The brain centers for these par- 
ticular activities have lost vigor and do 
not respond as formerly. Charles Dar- 
win tells us, in a pathetic passage, of 
155 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

how for years he allowed himself to be- 
come so absorbed in the observation and 
classification of physical phenomena, 
that when he took up again the study 
of literature, poetry, the drama and 
music, he found he had lost, through 
atrophy, the faculties for appreciating 
such things. 

Another thing to be remembered, is 
the fact that our minds seem in some 
real sense to be actually nourished by 
the raw materials of knowledge that we 
take in from the outside world. There is 
a close parallel here to the physiological 
process. The raw material of thought 
is taken into the mind through the 
senses, and there, is digested by the 
thought processes and is afterward ac- 
tually assimilated by the mind until it 
becomes a part of the mind's permanent 
possessions, and is given out again in 
countless forms. This means that as we 
go through the experiences of every 

156 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

day, we can, by the powers of observa- 
tion gather much or little of the raw 
material out of which thinking is made. 
Not only is the quantity of the raw ma- 
terial that goes into our mental store- 
house dependent upon our observation, 
but its quality as well. It is inconceiv- 
able that a person possessed of none of 
these avenues of sense, could go very 
far in his mental development. It be- 
comes of vital importance, therefore, 
how we observe and what we observe, 
as we go through life. 

It is not our purpose to enter into a 
technical examination of the various 
processes of thinking — these things are 
very important but the ordinary text 
book furnishes the necessary details re- 
garding them. Each different faculty 
of our mental life requires its own spe- 
cial kind of exercise. The faculty of 
perception requires objects of percep- 
tion; if you want to develop memory, 
157 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

there must be objects of memory; if 
you want to develop imagination, there 
must be objects of imagination; if you 
want to develop the reasoning faculty, 
there must be objects of reasoning; and 
so on, each requiring objects of exercise 
and nourishment of its own kind. It 
follows, that the weaker faculties should 
be developed through exercise first, and 
brought up to the general standard. 
Then a further general development 
may be undertaken. 

Because there is a real and wide- 
spread need of some sort of simple pro- 
gram, by means of which the average 
person may begin in some definite way 
the work of mental culture, let us con- 
sider the following practical sugges- 
tions : First : Begin at once to do some- 
thing to increase your mental efficiency. 
You have had the desire long enough; 
now express that desire in action. Do 
not attempt too elaborate a program. 
158 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

It is the elaborateness of our programs, 
oftentimes, that paralyzes our good reso- 
lutions. Don't tell anybody what you 
intend doing. It is the sarcastic smile 
of some skeptical friend whom we in- 
form of our good intentions, that throws 
the first discouraging obstacle in our 
path. Wait until you have won a few 
victories, then you can speak not of 
hopes but of achievements. 

It makes little difference on what you 
begin, if only you do begin. Suppose 
you say to yourself, " Within one month 
from this date, I will read twice Her- 
bert Spencer's little book on ' Educa- 
tion,' and will make notes in the back 
of the book of the things that particu- 
larly strike me." Or you can take a vol- 
ume of Emerson's Essays, or Hamilton 
Wright Mabie's Essays, — it makes no 
difference what, if only it be real litera- 
ture. You say that that is easy. Well, 
do it. You will at least have the satis- 
159 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

faction of knowing that you have made 
a resolution and kept it. You will also 
have immensely enriched your own 
mental life with new ideas, principles 
and thoughts, and added to your store- 
house of raw material, out of which 
your future thinking will be done. Af- 
ter the month's experience you will be 
justified in laying out a simple pro- 
gram for three months, and you will 
have acquired some general princi- 
ples by which to construct that pro- 
gram. 

Second: If you are really in earnest 
in increasing your mental efficiency, you 
will soon find that you will have to re- 
arrange your day. I do not care how 
much we are doing every twenty-four 
hours, — even the busiest of us — if we 
are honest with ourselves we must ad- 
mit at the close of the day or the end of 
the week that we are all idlers and time- 
wasters. There is no exception. The 
160 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

only difference is that some of us waste 
more time than others. We start out 
every morning with the idea that there 
are going to be twenty-six hours in this 
particular day, whereas there never are 
but twenty-four. Somewhere out of 
the jungle of the day's experience we 
must carve some time, an hour or half 
an hour, which we can devote specifi- 
cally to mental culture. If you ask 
where you are going to find the time, 
or from what present occupation you 
shall take the time, I would answer at 
once: Take it out of the time you now 
give to pleasure and recreation. A 
large amount of every day's time is not 
at our disposal. It belongs to other 
people. But there is a considerable por- 
tion of each day that is at our own dis- 
posal, and we all know how much of 
that time is spent in some form of pleas- 
ure or recreation, or else in inexcusable 
idleness. These things in which we find 
161 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

pleasure may be, in themselves, per- 
fectly harmless; but they become dan- 
gerous and work injury when they so 
completely absorb our leisure as to keep 
us from doing the things we might do 
to increase our mental efficiency. If we 
do not think that a higher degree of 
mental efficiency is worth the taking of 
some time away from pleasure, then we 
will not do it. 

Third: Remember that the Law of 
Mental Development is Mental Exer- 
cise. It seems strange that the musician 
will spend hours and hours in practising 
simple exercises for the sake of develop- 
ing the wrist and the fingers, and is not 
ashamed to do it; that the great singer 
will go over and over again the music, 
in which she is seeking the perfect artis- 
tic expression, and is not ashamed of 
her work ; that no artist anywhere, ever 
attained to high efficiency in anything 
without the long and laborious effort; 
162 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

and yet the average man or woman 
seems half ashamed to spend time in ex- 
ercising the mental faculties in the only 
way in which higher mental efficiency 
can be attained. One of the simplest, 
and at the same time most helpful 
forms of exercise is the daily commit- 
ting to memory of portions of great 
poetry or prose. If you have never 
tried it, you do not know what a delight- 
ful form of mental exercise this is. 
Twenty lines a day for six months, 
would alone tremendously enrich and 
arouse your sluggish mental life. In 
addition, you would have cultivated, in 
this form of mental exercise, the art of 
concentration as nothing else could do. 
This also would surprisingly increase 
your efficiency in all other forms of 
mental activity. It might be hard at 
first but every day it would become eas- 
ier. And every day your mental out- 
look would be widened and the quality 
163 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

of your thinking enriched by all the 
truths and beauty and ideals you have 
memorized. Best of all, you will have 
developed a new joy and confidence in 
going forward in all that makes for 
mental culture. Another form of men- 
tal calisthenics is to read a page or chap- 
ter from any good book, and when you 
have finished write down as much as 
you can remember either in your own 
words or in the words of the author. 
You will be surprised how your facility 
for concentrating attention as you read, 
and remembering what you read, will 
be increased. 

Fourth: The importance of writing, 
in any scheme of mental training, can- 
not be overestimated. Once again, it 
does not make so much difference what 
you write so long as you compose sen- 
tences and achieve continuity. Let it 
be a diary or, better still, a journal. 
The diary inclines to be too personal. A 
164 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

journal is much broader in its scope. It 
may be a book in which you record the 
good stories or the epigrams of apt quo- 
tations you hear, or the unusual experi- 
ences you meet in the course of the day. 
I read of a man recently, who started 
out to write in his journal all cases of 
current superstition which he actually 
encountered. He had no idea there 
would be anj^thing of especial interest 
or scientific value in his book, but it 
turned out to be of real scientific worth. 
I know a man who, every time he comes 
from a walk, sits down and writes a 
description of the walk as carefully and 
minutely and in as well-constructed 
sentences as possible. It takes time, to 
be sure, but nothing will more help to 
increase mental efficiency and to awaken 
sluggish mental powers and develop la- 
tent mental faculties, than this very act 
of forcing oneself to reduce to writing 
and put into finished sentences, the 
165 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

things that one has observed or experi- 
enced or read or heard. 

Fifth: The direct practice of the art 
of Thinking. How large a proportion 
of mankind go through life without 
ever doing any real thinking for them- 
selves ! As a matter of fact, most of us 
are the mere echoes of somebody's else 
thought. We read the opinion in the 
papers, or we hear it from some other 
lips, and we proceed forthwith to voice 
it as if it were our own. It is perfectly 
possible for us to agree in our opinions 
with other people, but if we possess a 
personality of our own, if we have 
ceased to be a " nobody " and have be- 
come " some one," we must work out 
that opinion or form that conclusion by 
means of our own mental processes. 
The mass of men and women to-day, in 
their political views, in their social opin- 
ions, in their religious convictions, are 
but echoing and re-echoing the things 
166 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

they have been taught from childhood 
without ever seriously investigating 
their truth. They are reflecting the 
opinions of those with whom they habit- 
ually associate, without ever honestly 
examining the foundations for such 
opinions. How few there are who, in 
the depths and silence of their own 
mental life, do their own thinking on 
these vital subjects! This may seem at 
first the most difficult form of mental 
exercise thus far suggested. But if you 
will persistently continue the practice of 
going apart for, say, ten minutes a day, 
and earnestly thinking of the highest 
things of which you are capable, you will 
marvel at the result. You will make 
failures, you will get discouraged, but if 
you persevere the time will come when 
you will look back in wonder at the in- 
crease of mental power in your life. 
When we say, " think or meditate for 
ten minutes a day," we do not mean that 
167 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

one must just look blankly at some par- 
ticular subject and try to hold the mind 
fixedly on that one thing. This is not 
the way to think. But confront the sub- 
ject about which you want to think, 
walk around it, look at it from every 
possible view-point, ask questions of it 
and about it, analyze it, call to your 
mind all that you have ever read or 
heard or seen with reference to it. This 
is the only way to truly think about 
anything. I have heard people say, " I 
wish I knew how to think; I find that 
when I sit down and try to think about 
a subject, my mind is a perfect blank." 
It is no wonder. If you were seated in 
a room and tried to concentrate your 
attention on a certain spot in the wall 
paper, it would only be a moment before 
you would find your gaze wandering or 
the spot becoming blurred; you could 
not hold your gaze directly and steadily 
on the spot. So with our minds* To 
168 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

think, means to think around your sub- 
ject and about it and through it, to ana- 
lyze it, to ask questions about it and of 
it, and before you realize it,, you will find 
a wealth of ideas revolving around that 
subject in your mind. 

Sixth: The last thing to be men- 
tioned is that which plays a vital part 
in the use of all our faculties, — the 
power of the Will in holding the mind 
steadily in concentration upon the sub- 
ject in hand. We shall consider this in 
detail later. Some one has said, that the 
real difference between minds lies not 
in any different powers of abstract rea- 
soning, but rather in the difference in 
the power of concentration ; and the one 
we call the great thinker is simply the 
man who is able to concentrate his mind 
as others cannot. Whether this is an 
extreme statement or not, nevertheless, 
we are all conscious that where we fail 
again and again in our efforts to in- 
169 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

crease mental efficiency, to follow some 
train of thought, to memorize some 
piece of writing, is chiefly because of 
our inability to concentrate the mind. 

But the greatest and most marvelous 
power of the mind, on its thinking side, 
is not found in the increased efficiency 
of any special faculty, nor of all of 
them. It is revealed rather in character 
and personality. " As a man thinketh 
— so is he." This applies not only to 
the range, but what is still more im- 
portant to the quality, of his thinking. 
Thoughts are living things. No man is 
made by his environment or by his as- 
sociates, except as he allows his environ- 
ment or associates to make his thinking. 

If our thinking is low and impure, 
though we may never utter the word, 
' our characters are impure ; if our think- 
ing is hateful and revengeful, though 
we may never do the overt act, our char- 
acters are hateful and revengeful; if 
170 



THE TRAINING OF THE MIND 

our thinking is selfish, our lives are self- 
ish. On the other hand, if our thinking 
is kind and considerate and loving and 
helpful, if it is courageous, hopeful and 
trustful, our characters partake of the 
very essence of these thoughts. We, 
slowly but surely, become like the habit- 
ual thoughts which fill the mind. When 
Paul writes, " Finally, Brethren, what- 
soever things are true, whatsoever 
things are honorable, whatsoever things 
are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely, whatso- 
ever things are of good report, think on 
these things," he is revealing for all time 
the secret of the true symmetrical Per- 
sonality. For as we think on " these 
things," we are sending down to the 
sub-conscious region of our lives the 
right quality of the raw material of 
thought, which gives back again in a 
thousand forms the influences that 
work their transforming miracle in life 
171 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

and character, and lead us at length to 
the highest attainments. 

If we could but realize that the time 
is coming to each one of us when the 
physical body will be laid aside and for- 
gotten, and the only thing that we shall 
take into that great Eternity will be 
Ourselves, and what our thinking has 
made us! If we can be so interested in 
the efficiency of the transitory body, 
how much more concerned should we be 
to increase our mental efficiency and de- 
velop to the full our mental powers, 
when we know that this is the only es- 
sential part of our lives that we shall 
carry with us across the Great Divide! 



172 




THE EDUCATION OF THE 
WILL 

HE one chief cause of our con- 
stant failures and numerous 
misfortunes in the task of 
Self-development is the 
weakness of the Will, that reveals itself 
in a well-nigh universal distaste for sus- 
tained and persistent effort along any 
line. We may not relish the fact, but 
nevertheless it is true, that our passive- 
ness, our thoughtlessness, our superfi- 
ciality, our dissipation of energy in so 
many unprofitable channels, are simply 
terms to designate the depths of laziness 
to which we are all prone to descend. 
We may deceive ourselves, but the real 
reason that we are not accomplishing 
173 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

more in the development of our higher 
moral and mental powers is that ever- 
present state of mind which may be 
called effeminacy, apathy or idleness. 
To arouse oneself constantly to fresh 
efforts, and to renew daily the struggle 
against this natural state of mind, is the 
only possible way in which we may dare 
to hope for victory. 

We call this state of mind " natural," 
in the sense that any continued effort is 
not kept up long by man except under 
the pressure of necessity. Travelers 
are unanimous in their statements, that 
among uncivilized races there is an abso- 
lute incapacity for all persevering ef- 
fort. M. Ribot thoughtfully remarks, 
that in all probability the first efforts of 
voluntary attention were performed by 
women, who were constrained by fear 
of blows to regular labor, while their 
masters rested or slept. Herbert Spen- 
cer concludes " that it really seems as if 
174 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

the aim of the great majority was to get 
through life with the least possible ex- 
penditure of thought or energy." Af- 
ter all the centuries of education and 
development along so many lines, it is 
rather humiliating, to say the least, to 
realize that in this fundamental ten- 
dency to sheer mental laziness the most 
of us are still in the state of our savage 
ancestors. Like them, we are capable 
of occasional outbursts of energy, but 
for the most part, we really think and 
seriously work only when forced by the 
pressure of circumstances. What is so 
distasteful is that voluntary, persistent 
labor of mind or body, without which 
the highest achievements are impossible. 
Most people are exceedingly busy about 
many things, but real energy of the 
Will expresses itself less by multiple 
and various efforts than by the direction 
of all the forces of the mind down to 
hard work along certain definite lines. 
175 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Strange to say, everybody knows the 
truth of these statements. The univer- 
sal neglect of the Will has long at- 
tracted the attention especially of phy- 
sicians and teachers. Parents, gener- 
ally, are utterly helpless or inexcusably 
incompetent in the supreme task of 
training the Will in their children. 
Everybody feels the disproportion that 
exists between the general culture of the 
mind and the weakness of the will. Ap- 
parently, our chief aim is to cram the 
mind with all sorts of information, use- 
ful or otherwise, while in most instances 
we utterly neglect to train the great in- 
strument that alone can make the best 
use of the information and direct the 
totality of life's powers toward highest 
ends. But few books have yet appeared 
telling just how the education of the 
will should be conducted, and we hardly 
know how to begin by ourselves upon 
this work, which parents and teachers 
176 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

have not even outlined for us. Paul is 
simply giving expression to the univer- 
sal human experience when he says: 
" To will is present with me," that is, 
the desire to will, " but how to perform 
... I find not." 

Our stock excuse for not making 
greater progress in the development of 
the true Self is, invariably, the lack of 
time. People are saying constantly, 
" This is all very true, and unquestion- 
ably we ought to be giving more atten- 
tion to the things that make for higher 
mental and moral efficiency, but how is 
it possible when every day is crowded 
full with other duties? " How many 
times we say, when we are reminded of 
some weakness or glaring need of our 
lives, " Yes, I am going to attend to 
that just as soon as I find the time." 
This is the excuse we all make, and it is 
the first and greatest obstacle in the 
pathway to higher attainments. With 
177 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

all possible emphasis and in the face of 
every objection, let me maintain that it 
is never a question of time, but only of 
Will. 

Mr. Arnold Bennett has recently 
published a suggestive little book, en- 
titled, " How to Live on Twenty-four 
Hours a Day." The title was brought to 
his mind by the articles which frequently 
appear in the daily paper on " How to 
Live on a Certain Income of Money a 
Week." He expresses surprise that 
none of the editors have yet written on 
the subject " How to Live on Twenty- 
four Hours a Day." We all accept the 
proverb that time is money. But time 
is vastly more than money, for though 
you possess the wealth of Croesus you 
cannot buy yourself a minute more of 
time than has the poorest man. Time is 
the inexplicable raw material of every- 
thing. With it, all is possible; with- 
out it, nothing. Most beautifully 
178 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

he describes this " daily miracle of 
life." 

You wake up every morning, and as 
if by magic, you find your purse filled 
with twenty-four hours of time, the 
wondrous tissue out of which you must 
weave health, wealth, pleasure, content 
and the evolution of your immortal soul. 
Moreover, you cannot draw on the fu- 
ture. It is impossible to go into debt 
for time. You cannot waste to-morrow, 
for to-morrow is mercifully kept in re- 
serve. You cannot waste the next hour, 
it is kept for you. You can only waste 
the present passing moment, and then, 
immediately you are face to face with 
the new hour, constantly bringing its 
fresh opportunities. Mr. Bennett asks: 
: ' Who of us lives on twenty-four hours 
a day? And when I say ' lives,' I do 
not mean exists, nor ' muddles through.' 
Who of us is free from that uneasy 
feeling that the great spending depart- 
179 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

merits of his daily life are not managed 
as they ought to be? Who of us has not 
been saying to himself all his life, ' I 
shall alter that when I have a little more 
time ? ' : The profound fact is, we never 
shall have any more time. Truism 
though it is, we have and we have al- 
ways had all the time there is. What 
we are accomplishing in our mental, 
moral or spiritual development does not 
depend upon the " time we have," but 
upon the use that our wills make of the 
time. 

Examine for a moment your budget 
of time. The twenty-four hours of 
every day fall into three general divi- 
sions for the average life: Eight hours 
is given to sleep, eight hours to our 
daily work, and eight hours for our- 
selves. One of our leading physicians 
has recently said that we " sleep our- 
selves stupid; " that nine out of ten peo- 
ple could get along with much less 
180 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

sleep than they do ; that if we spent less 
time in bed we would not only enjoy 
better health, but would get a great deal 
more out of life. I venture to affirm 
that it would be impossible, on the spur 
of the moment, for you to state just how 
you spend the eight spare hours of 
every day. You would have to think 
some time in order to figure it out. 
Beside the spare hours of every day, 
most of us have from Saturday noon 
until Monday morning of every week, 
at least twenty-four to thirty additional 
hours which we are free to devote to 
things really worth while, if we choose. 
Do not stultify yourself any longer, by 
making the old and dishonest excuse. 
" Where there is a will, there is a way." 
Only seek to enter into a deeper appre- 
ciation of this daily miracle of your life, 
that each morning thrusts anew into 
your keeping, the twenty-four fresh 
hours to be used as you will. 
181 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Professor Paulsen, of Berlin Univer- 
sity, says: " Of late Psychology tends 
more and more to consider Will as the 
primary and constitutive function of the 
mind." The old psychology said that 
" a man does what he is at the time." 
This the new psychology affirms, but 
adds with still greater emphasis: " a 
man is, at the time, what he does." Not 
feelings, not sentiments, not good reso- 
lutions, even, but only actions, born of 
the will, truly reveal us. Life has its 
reality, its meaning, its interest, its end, 
in the will-attitudes which we take. We 
must will, not merely think or feel. To 
live is now to act. The training of the 
will thus becomes the most vital of all 
problems. 

As Fichte taught, the most original 
thing in human life is the impulse to ac- 
tion ; it is given before the consciousness 
of the world and cannot be derived from 
it. As we have already seen, the nat- 
182 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

ural history of every act consists, first, 
of the primitive impulse or feeling, 
next, the thought or idea aroused by the 
feeling, and lastly, the completion of 
the primary impulse in the concrete act. 
This is the psj^chologic development of 
every action. It is born back in the im- 
pulse; it may speedily express itself as 
action, or it may linger for a time, in- 
tensified or changed by the thought; 
but at last it must manifest itself in 
some form of activity. Despite the fact 
of the universal tendency to laziness, 
nothing can be clearer from the funda- 
mental organization of body and mind 
than that we were created for action. 
This is what human development in- 
volves — the overcoming of passivity 
and apathy, and the training of all the 
forces of our complex being to sustained 
activity and persevering effort. Any- 
thing less than this, is to fail of attain- 
ing true Personality. 
183 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

The body is organized for action. 
The circulation of the blood looks to ac- 
tion. As a distinguished psychologist 
has said: " The blood has at once both 
a nourishing and a stimulating effect." 
As James points out, the nervous sys- 
tem is, psychologically considered, sim- 
ply a machine for converting stimuli 
into reactions. The muscular system 
tells a similar story. Stanley Hall con- 
cludes that the number of muscles in the 
human anatomy is significant when we 
remember that the life of the muscle lies 
in its action. But it is no more true of 
the body than of the mind. The mind 
is organized for action. Every idea 
tends to pass into action and would al- 
ways do so, if it were not hindered by 
the presence of other counteracting 
ideas. We do not begin to realize, as 
yet, the wide sweep of this principle. 
It means that the doing of anything, 
follows from simple concentration of 
184 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

attention upon it. Filled with this one 
idea we go forward, almost as if moved 
from without, sometimes in a kind of 
daze, into the performance of the act to 
which the idea looks. The idea tends of 
itself to pass into the act, and only 
needs the exclusive field to do so. It is 
the idea that finds an otherwise vacant 
mind that is sure to get done. It 
is the engrossing temptation that 
conquers. 

The Will reveals itself most directly 
in Attention. Attention is not a sepa- 
rate faculty of the mind, in the same 
sense as perception, abstraction, etc., 
but is rather in the nature of an act of 
Will concerned in the focusing of the 
consciousness upon some definite object 
of thought. This is where the weakness 
of the Will betrays itself first of all. 
Hamilton says : " Consciousness may be 
compared to a telescope; Attention is 
the pulling out and pressing in of the 
185 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

tubes in accommodating the focus of the 
eye. An , act of attention seems thus 
necessary to every exertion of conscious- 
ness, as a certain contraction of pupil is 
requisite to every exertion of vision. It 
constitutes the better half of all intel- 
lectual power." Butler says: " The 
most important intellectual habit that I 
know of is the habit of attending exclu- 
sively to the matter in hand. This 
power of concentrated attention is un- 
questionably capable of almost indefi- 
nite augmentation by resolute practice." 
It is impossible to exaggerate the im- 
portance of concentration in every 
phase of mental activity. To have 
learned this one lesson will be to have 
more than half solved the problem of 
Self-development. The lack of this one 
power in our lives is the chief cause of 
our meagre attainments along every 
line. Brooks says: "Attention is one 
of the principle elements of genius." 
186 



THE EDUCATION OE THE WILL 

Hamilton says: " Genius is simply a 
higher capacity of attention." Chester- 
field says: " The power of applying our 
attention steady and undissipated, to a 
single object, is a sure mark of superior 
genius." In view of such undisputed 
opinions it becomes our first duty, if 
we are truly desirous of educating the 
Will, to cultivate the powers of Atten- 
tion. 

To this end we must remember that 
Attention like all other mental powers, 
can be developed by exercise and nour- 
ishment ; that is, by using it frequently 
and employing it actively, and by fur- 
nishing it with the proper materials 
with which to feed its strength. The 
first step is to carefully acquire the habit 
of thinking of, or doing, but one thing 
at a time. Attention consists of a two- 
fold activity: (1) the concentration 
upon some one object of thought; and 
(2) the shutting out of all outside ob- 
187 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

jects. Thus it has its positive and nega- 
tive sides. 

How shall we go about acquiring this 
habit? Let me suggest that the best 
place to form the habit of attention is in 
the everyday experiences of life, on the 
street or in the car, in the office or at 
the dinner table. No special tools are 
necessary, not even a book. For exam- 
ple, you start out in the morning to walk 
from your house to the car. Decide, as 
you leave your home, that during the 
walk you will center your attention on 
some one subject, — it makes no differ- 
ence what it is. Probably you will not 
have gone ten yards before your mind 
will have darted leagues away and you 
will find yourself thinking about some- 
thing you saw in the newspaper. But 
go after it and bring it back and set it at 
work again, thinking along the lines you 
first selected. Keep doing this, if you 
have to do it forty times over. But you 
188 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

say " I cannot control my thinking, I 
only wish I could; but it is utterly im- 
possible for me to concentrate my mind 
like that." No greater sophistry could 
be expressed. Reflect a moment. 
Within an hour you are in your office, 
and are dictating letters; your mind 
now is all attention; you are not dis- 
tracted; your thoughts are no longer 
rambling over all creation; you have 
yourself in hand and find no difficulty 
in replying to your letters. By the 
force of circumstances, as you take your 
seat in your office chair, there is aroused 
in you a mental vitality, a vigor, a tone, 
that enables you now to bring your 
mental powers to attention on the task 
that lies immediately before you. Now, 
the fact that you can do this in the of- 
fice, or in the schoolroom, or in the home 
when conditions force you to make the 
effort, ought to prove that it is perfectly 
possible for you to do it anywhere at 
189 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

any time, if you will. The mind has a 
habit of wandering unless held in atten- 
tion by the will. There are times when 
we all do concentrate. Our failures to 
concentrate at other times, are simply 
the result of not rousing ourselves to put 
forth the required effort of will. But 
every time the effort is made, the path 
of habit becomes beaten down more 
firmly, and the next time less effort will 
be required in holding the attention of 
the mind. 

You sit down with the open book be- 
fore you. How hard it is to read a sin- 
gle page consecutively! Somebody 
shuts a window, or slams the door, or 
comes into the room, or goes out. 
Every noise in the street disturbs you 
and distracts your mind. After a feeble 
effort you throw the book down in dis- 
gust — you practically admit your ina- 
bility to concentrate your mind. In 
college I had a friend who possessed the 
190 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

power of concentration to an unusual 
degree. After he had settled himself to 
his studies, you could go into the room, 
walk around, take books from the 
shelves, make any kind of an ordinary 
noise, and he would be perfectly oblivi- 
ous of your presence. In preparing his 
lessons, in writing a thesis, or in serious 
reading, he became deaf, dumb and 
blind, apparently, to all surrounding 
conditions. This may be an extreme 
case, but nevertheless, it reveals the pos- 
sibilities of what can be attained by the 
persistency of one's effort in the exercise 
of the powers of Attention. Or, take 
the dinner table conversation. If you 
have never tried this, it will be a revela- 
tion of the rambling proclivities of the 
mind. After the dinner is over, try to 
jot down on paper the many different 
subjects which came up in the course of 
the conversation, subjects that had no 
possible bearing on one another, crea- 
191 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ting altogether a general hodge-podge 
of ideas. Of course, there is nothing 
wrong in spending the hour in such a 
disconnected jumble of ideas, if we 
choose. But there is no better oppor- 
tunity for practising the art of concen- 
tration than in this everyday experi- 
ence. Suppose, at least occasionally, as 
we sit down to the dinner table with the 
members of our household, we decide to 
spend the time in discussing some one 
subject, shutting out of our minds, for 
the time being, everything else. We 
would be surprised to discover either 
how much, or how little we knew about 
that particular subject — but better 
still, we should have gained in our pow- 
ers of attention. Another excellent 
form of exercise, is to force oneself 
each day to do some really hard read- 
ing, requiring one's absolute mental 
attention, simply for the sake of ac- 
quiring a greater degree of efficiency 
192 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

in concentrating the powers of the 
mind. 

As we realize that the acquiring of 
the habit of sustained and protracted 
Attention is the first and largest part 
of the task of educating the Will, let us 
now proceed to consider some practical 
suggestions as to how the power of the 
Will may be still further developed. 

First : There must be the clear recog- 
nition of the Ego as the Master of the 
will. This recognition must be more 
than an abstract, intellectual assent to 
the idea of the Ego, as that which stands 
behind all mental states, as the Feeler, 
the Thinker, and the Wilier. It must 
consist of a conscious, intuitional feeling 
of the presence and reality of the " I " 
as the centre of the mental field, and the 
master of all the faculties, feelings, de- 
sires, imaginations, thoughts and acts. 
Remember, the highest thing about you 
is not your thoughts, nor your feelings, 
193 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

nor even your deeds. The highest thing 
about you is Yourself, — it is this true 
Self in our lives, whose presence we 
have scarcely begun to recognize, whose 
powers we do not appreciate, whose 
meaning we but dimly understand. We 
shall never make much headway in the 
increase of will-power until we come to 
a deeper realization of the reality of the 
Ego in our lives. When you have 
forced yourself to do something con- 
trary to your inclinations, when you 
have conquered some desire or impulse 
of your nature, just stop long enough 
to say to yourself, "It is ' I ' who did 
this; my feelings would have led me in 
another path; my inclinations would 
have taken me in a contrary direction, 
but I did not follow; it was my Ego, 
the ' I ' in me, the true Self, who proved 
to be the real master." Every time you 
stop and realize that there is such a 
power in you, that is capable of master- 
194 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

ing all impulses and emotions, all 
thoughts and ideas, all deeds and ac- 
tions, you will find yourself becoming 
immensely stronger in your conscious- 
ness of the meaning and power of this 
mighty Ego that should reign supreme 
in your life. 

Second: Practise the control of the 
other portions of the mind, under the di- 
rection of the Ego. Will to will. De- 
cide that whatever else comes into the 
day's experience, you are going to ex- 
ercise your volitional faculty by giving 
expression to the power of your will. 
Resolve that for this day, at least, you 
will not be governed by your moods or 
feelings, but will govern them. Then 
take some idea. Let it be consistent 
with your highest ideal of what life 
ought to be. You will find in yourself 
— as we all do when we stand in the 
presence of our ideals — certain desires, 
inclinations, or thoughts that are not in 
195 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

harmony with your ideals. Say to your- 
self, determinedly, " I am going to will 
the opposite of these unworthy desires; 
J will to bring my desires into conform- 
ity with my highest ideals." Then let 
your Ego command your Will. The 
desire or feeling will struggle and rebel ; 
it will make a strong fight for continu- 
ance, but you must oppose to it the 
deadly cold steel of your will as directed 
by the pure Ego. Persevere and yield 
not an inch; assert your mastery of 
your own mental domain. And as 
surely as to-morrow's sun will rise, so 
surely must your will triumph. Or, you 
may find in yourself certain thoughts 
which you know are not consistent with 
your highest ideals. Determine that 
you shall think the opposite of such 
thoughts. Again you will have to fight ; 
but just for the sheer joy of the strug- 
gle with yourself, just for the satisfac- 
tion of knowing that you are not the 
196 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

slave of your thoughts but the Master, 
put your will to the test and force your- 
self into a different mental atmosphere. 
It can be done, and new strength comes 
in the doing. 

Third : Cultivate the faculty of delib- 
eration and consideration. Look before 
you leap. Pause and reflect. In the 
clear light of reason and in the presence 
of cool judgment, take time to think 
over the step that your impulse prompts 
you to take. Test every impulse by the 
touch-stone: : ' Will this make me 
stronger? Does this tend toward at- 
tainment? Is this conducive to my 
highest good? " The actions of which 
we are most ashamed and which cause 
us most regret are invariably the ac- 
tions that we have not carefully consid- 
ered first. The hasty word, the unkind 
act, the impure deed, the dishonest 
transaction spring, as a rule, out of the 
impulse of the moment and are not the 
197 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

results of cool deliberation. This is one 
of the finest forms of exercise for the 
strengthening of will-power in your 
life. Force yourself, before you take 
any step, to think the thing over, to de- 
liberate. I do not mean by that, to 
form the habit of hesitancy or irreso- 
luteness before taking any step. Delib- 
eration is often accomplished in the 
twinkling of an eye. The thing is, to be 
sure that you have deliberated, sure that 
you have turned the light of under- 
standing upon the impulse, sure that 
you have subjected the mental state to 
the conscious scrutiny of the Ego, in- 
stead of merely acted from habit or im- 
pulse. 

Fourth : We need to acquire the habit 
of controlling ourselves by our will. 
When we have once acquired this habit 
half the battle is over, for the rest of the 
mind will have learned to respond to the 
guiding hand of the Ego. Do we real- 
198 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

ize that the thing that differentiates us 
from the animals is our power of self- 
control? Do we realize that that which 
marks us as sane in comparison with 
those we call insane is simply the higher 
degree of self-control we possess? Do 
we stop to think that the secret of 
efficiency in some lives and inefficiency 
in others, is either the presence or 
absence of self-control? Do we appre- 
ciate the fact that the great characters 
in history have never been the men and 
women of feeble passions, of weak ap- 
petites, or few temptations; they have 
always been the men and women who 
have faced passion and appetite and 
temptation in every form, and won the 
victory through their powers of self- 
control? The shame of our lives and 
the deepest tragedies of human experi- 
ence — where do they lie if not in this : 
that we were not strong enough at the 
time, to control ourselves; that we 
199 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

weakly surrendered our inalienable, 
God-given right of Self-control to other 
hands. If for no other reason but the 
sheer joy of knowing that we can con- 
trol ourselves in every temptation, in 
every crisis, in every emergency of our 
lives, we should seek most earnestly to 
acquire this habit of making the Ego 
speak the commanding word, and thus 
hold the dominating power within us. 

Fifth: We need to train the mental 
steeds by driving them in directions con- 
trary to those in which they want to go. 
Not because the directions the} 7 would 
take are in themselves bad or injurious, 
but simply for the sake of training them 
to do your bidding, and bringing them 
under the absolute domination of your 
Ego. One of the best ways to adminis- 
ter this kind of training is deliberately 
to make yourself perform some disa- 
greeable task, something irksome, dis- 
tasteful, or something that you do not 
200 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

wish to do or feel like doing. Do this 
simply because you know that when you 
force yourself to go contrary to your 
inclinations, desires, and thoughts, you 
are strengthening your power of self- 
control. One writer tells of a man 
whom he found reading a dry book on 
political economy. He said to him, " I 
did not know you had any interest in 
such subjects." His friend replied, " I 
have not, but every night I force myself 
to read on this subject that I am not at 
all interested in, simply because I want 
to feel the satisfaction of knowing that 
I can make my mind do anything I 
want it to do." There are many things 
we can do that we do not want to do. 
On Sunday afternoon, your inclination 
may be to lie down and sleep. Now, 
exercise your will and prove that you 
are the master, by saying, " I want to 
sleep but I am not in special need of 
sleep, so I will go out for a walk instead, 
201 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

or I will spend the afternoon in reading, 
or I will make this call that I ought to 
have made long ago." Or, you have a 
spare evening, and the inclination is to 
spend the time with friends. As you 
stop to reflect, you say, " Here is a 
splendid chance to read a few chapters 
of that new book, and thus get some 
real mental exercise." But your incli- 
nation is not to stay at home. Simply 
as a matter of will-exercise, make your- 
self from time to time, do the thing that 
your inclinations do not prompt. Every 
time you do a disagreeable or irksome 
thing for that reason, you are convin- 
cing yourself that you hold the reins of 
your life and that these various mental 
steeds, unruly and obstreperous as they 
are, can be controlled by you ; and that 
it is possible for you to reach at length, 
that plane of Self -poise where you will 
become in very truth the Master of your 
life. 

202 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 
I imagine there are those who would 
say, with a shrug of the shoulder, to 
such suggestions as the above: " Plati- 
tudes; that is all very nice; it sounds 
good, and looks well in print, but it is 
all so impracticable." I only wish it 
were possible to arrest your attention 
and make you feel the solemn emphasis 
these suggestions contain. There is 
nothing in all the world so absolutely 
important to our lives than that we 
should just take these simple sugges- 
tions and honestly put them into prac- 
tice. Try them for a month, and I pre- 
dict that you will be grateful all your 
life long ; for there will come into your 
being a new sense of power, you will 
become nothing less than a new man or 
woman, you will realize as never before 
what you are capable of doing with 
yourself. The practice of these princi- 
ples will not only lead you into new 
paths of power; it will also lead you 
203 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

into new paths of pleasure. For there 
is no joy in all of life like the joy that 
comes to one who has awakened to the 
great realization that he is his own mas- 
ter, that he can control his forces, that 
he can make himself do the things that 
in his better moments he knows he ought 
to do. The joy of the victor, in the con- 
flict with self, more than repays one 
for the struggle. The man who masters 
himself is well on his way to master the 
things outside. 

We may disregard these suggestions 
if we choose. They are not my sugges- 
tions ; they come from the most sensible 
and practical and level-headed minds of 
our day. I am simply giving them to 
you second-hand. But we need to be 
reminded, once again, that if we care 
anything about the development of 
our higher natures, if we are at all con- 
cerned with the fact that we are here to 
grow the true Personality and that true 
204 



THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 

Personality means true self-control in 
every one of life's activities, if we are at 
all interested in rising above the plane 
of the mediocre and proving our right 
to be called " a child of God " — then 
the least we can do will be to test the 
utility and the practical value of these 
principles that make for the education 
of the will. 

The supreme task of self-mastery is 
no easy task. There is no royal road 
to the victory over self. Persistent 
work, persevering effort, indomitable 
courage, patience and hope, — these 
are the chief requisites in the slow but 
sure process of Self-development. But 
as the years multiply and old age creeps 
on, gradually extinguishing the pleas- 
ures of the senses and bringing the 
downfall of all purely selfish satisfac- 
tions, the life that has learned its own 
deep meaning, and how to use its own 
wondrous powers in the attainment of 
205 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

true Personality will find that the joys 
of living have constantly multiplied. 
Not one of the true sources of happi- 
ness or satisfaction can fail such a Per- 
sonality, with the progress of the years. 
Rather can he say with Quinet: " When 
old age had come, I found it much less 
bitter than you made it out to be. The 
years which you said would be full of 
misery and distress have been even 
sweeter to me than those of youth. I 
expected it to be like an icy peak, nar- 
row and deserted and wrapt in fog ; and 
I saw, on the contrary, opened up be- 
fore me, a vast horizon which my eyes 
had hitherto never seen. I realized my- 
self more completely, and also the deep 
significance of every act I did." 



206 




THE REALIZATION OF SELF- 
CONSCIOUSNESS 

N our consideration of the la- 
tent possibilities of man's emo- 
tional, intellectual and voli- 
tional powers, and the practi- 
cal method for attaining their highest 
development, we need to remember, ac- 
cording to our definition of Personality, 
that these three are bound together in 
Self-conscious unity. This last fact 
constitutes the fundamental essence of 
Personality; and the degree of self- 
consciousness attained, reveals how far 
one has traveled in the path that leads 
to true Personality. Without this con- 
scious unity there could be no such thing 
as an intelligent individual. So that all 
207 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

we have said about the place of feeling, 
thought and will, in human life, has 
reality and significance only because of 
the Self or Ego who stands behind, and 
eventually must become the master of 
all mental states. 

It now remains for us to consider 
more at length the meaning and func- 
tion of Self-consciousness in human life, 
and the supreme part it must play in 
our higher development. We have seen 
that the great goal of the evolutionary 
process is the development in man of 
the true Personality. But this process 
is still in progress and man is to-day far 
from being complete. In one of his 
poems, Browning uses the rather start- 
ling expression, " Man's self is not yet 
man;" he then goes on to describe in 
his vivid way, the time when not only 
here and there will a star of genius rise 
to dispel the darkness, when not occa- 
sionally will a man tower head and 
208 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

shoulders in mental and moral attain- 
ments above his fellows, but when all 
mankind will be alike perfected and 
" equal in full-blown powers." And not 
till that time comes, declares Browning, 
will " man's general infancy begin." 
Translating the poetry into prose, Mr. 
Browning simply saw in prophetic vis- 
ion that coming day when, in the evo- 
lution of humanity, no man would be 
confined to any single narrow range of 
activity, but when liberal education 
combined with broad culture would be 
so general that in business life, in pro- 
fessional life, everywhere, there would 
be found writers, historians, scientists, 
inventors, carrying on the great work of 
the world as it deals with material 
things, and yet when the day's work is 
over, repairing to their own libraries, 
laboratories, or studios, to continue their 
labors along other lines, even as Lord 
Beaconsfield, Gladstone, Bulwer, Will- 
209 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

iam Morris, John Hay and many 
others have done. When this condition 
becomes general among men and 
women, then will " man's infancy be- 
gin." The poet's vision stirs our deep- 
est souls with the limitless prospects 
which lie before our unfolding human- 
ity. 

It is not necessary, however, for us 
to put man's infancy into so remote a 
future. With increasing intelligence 
among all classes and the widespread 
dissemination of .knowledge through a 
multitude of popular channels of edu- 
cation we may, for all practical pur- 
poses, assume that man's infancy has at 
least begun. 

Familiar as is the term, it is doubtful 
if any of us have as yet begun to realize 
how tremendously revolutionary in 
man's thinking has been the Doctrine of 
Evolution, and how wonderful its im- 
plications for the unfolding of man's 
210 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

higher possibilities. This new philoso- 
phy has proved to be a universal clue; 
but though we may follow it faithfully, 
we shall never arrive at its end. Only 
in its light can all phenomena be truly 
interpreted, whether organic, inorganic, 
vegetal, animal, human, intellectual, or 
spiritual. It is the new mental tele- 
scope, through whose lenses alone can 
be correctly discerned the universal 
trend of the mighty cosmic forces. As 
we have seen, the end and purpose of 
the Universe — that " for which the 
whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
together " — is the bringing forth of 
the complete man, the symmetrical 
Personality. Evolution has literally 
created for us a new heaven and a new 
earth, and it has giv«n us a new and 
loftier conception of humanity. All the 
sciences, astronomy, geology, botany, 
zoology, biology, anthropology, psy- 
chology, etc., are for us veritably new 
211 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

creations. Every theory, system, text- 
book, that has been formulated without 
the light of this all-inclusive philosophy, 
is but so much worthless material, as in- 
congruous to our day as the Ptolemaic 
system of astronomy. It is not strange, 
that for a time after Darwin published 
his " Origin of Species " in 1857, men 
should have been absorbed in the appli- 
cation of the principle of evolution to 
material things. It was declared that 
" All potency is contained in matter." 
As first set forth Evolution was mate- 
rialistic, and many scholars since Dar- 
win's time have not escaped this materi- 
alistic tendency. 

Evolution, as conventionally set 
forth, has dealt with mere figures rather 
than the numbers which they represent, 
with sensuous forms instead of the 
moulding force which shapes and rules 
them, with the complex changes in 
matter rather than in the life principle 
212 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

that dwells within all matter. Visible 
forms are only symptomatic of the 
moulding reality that is back of them. 
It was admitted that forms are endowed 
with a quality called life or soul, but 
this was regarded as an incidental prop- 
erty resulting from the organization of 
matter. Mere fortuitous combination 
of atoms was thus looked upon as a 
creator of life. Cause was mistaken for 
effect, and it was assumed that matter 
evolves itself, or that it was both actor 
and material acted upon. 

There has been, however, an evolu- 
tion of Evolution. Sir William 
Crookes, speaking a few years ago for 
Modern Science, said, " To-day we find 
the potency of matter and of the entire 
universe to be in Life." Lifted from 
its blind materialism Evolution is seen 
to be the divine method of con- 
tinuous creation; or in more spe- 
cific terms, as God's way of making 
213 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the complete and fully perfected 
man. 

True Evolution, in its essence, is the 
name of the law of inner progress, 
rather than of a series of visible forms. 
The life, mind, or soul, at whatever 
point in the ascending scale, is always 
the cause, and not the result, of the or- 
ganization of matter. The real pro- 
gression is in the ascending quality of 
mind or life within the organism. It is 
not matter, per se, that progresses. 
The same physical material appears, 
disappears and reappears again in 
higher or lower combinations. The ele- 
ments which to-day make up the trunk 
of a tree or the body of a dog may at 
some earlier time have had their place 
in the physical organism of a seer, or 
philosopher. We know that progress 
is not in the thing, the matter, the mate- 
rial ; it is rather in the mind or life prin- 
ciple that lies within the matter or the 
214 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

thing. All progress is in the unseen. 
There is no ascent or descent in the ma- 
terial but only in its user. 

This rather lengthy digression is for 
the sake of setting forth clearly the es- 
sence of the true Doctrine of Evolution 
which is gradually displacing the old 
materialism, and which makes the future 
radiant with promise. According to 
this modern view, in the great cycle of 
creative development, the divine life, 
first involved in the lowest conditions 
and forms, is at length through a series 
of gradual steps, gathered, organized, 
individuated and evolved into " sons of 
God." What interminable struggles 
and efforts, and evolutions upon evolu- 
tions, all working for " that one, far off, 
divine event to which the whole creation 
moves"! What an upward leap was 
that from the inorganic to the organic! 
But the same omnipresent divine life 
binds the rock into form, that thrills in 
215 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the mind of a Shakespeare, or the soul 
of a Phillips Brooks. Mollusk, fish, rep- 
tile, and mammal, with their many sub- 
divisions, — all these form the rounds 
of the ladder upon which we have been 
climbing toward perfect manhood. 
' The road to a spiritual self -conscious- 
ness has been hewn through a great for- 
est of expressive forms, each of which 
has in turn been pushed aside for its 
more fitting successor." The movement 
has ever been through the clod to the 
vegetable, through the vegetable to the 
animal, through the animal to man, 
through man to the self-conscious indi- 
vidual and through the self-conscious in- 
dividual to the true Personality, the 
" son of God." 

Applying this conception of evolu- 
tion to the inner essence or life principle 
resident in all forms, we find, that in the 
last analysis, the evolutionary process 
must be stated in terms of the unfolding 
216 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 
of Consciousness. This, after all, is the 
true evolution. Important and neces- 
sary as it is to know the changes taking 
place in the external forms, all such 
changes are but incidental to the 
changes taking place in the inner life 
principle, — the reality that moulds all 
forms. The stage we have reached in 
our personal evolution does not depend 
upon the form of our physical bodies, 
but rather upon the degree and kind of 
consciousness we possess. 

Before attempting to trace the un- 
folding of consciousness in life, from the 
first hints of a coming consciousness in 
the lowest forms to the highest type of 
spiritual consciousness in man, let us 
ask what we mean by Consciousness, 
and what part it plays in our lives. 
While individual Consciousness is, per- 
haps, as profound a mystery as there is 
in all the universe, it is, nevertheless, the 
essential foundation of all our individual 
217 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

efforts and all our individual progress. 
Let us see if this is true. Everything 
that we know comes through personal 
consciousness. We only know the 
things of which we are personally " con- 
scious." We cannot strictly say that we 
" know " anything else. We may be- 
lieve many other things because of what 
we read or what people have said, but 
we only truly know the things which 
have entered into our personal con- 
sciousness. So that it is clear that all 
our knowledge, not only of lower but of 
higher things, depends upon conscious- 
ness. No real knowledge of the uni- 
verse, no knowledge of human life past 
or present, no knowledge of ourselves, 
no knowledge whatsoever of God can 
come to us except it comes through our 
consciousness. Without consciousness 
there can be no such thing as knowledge. 
Let us take a step further. We know 
that personal responsibility and moral 
218 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

accountability, these essential character- 
istics of every intelligent being, are de- 
pendent upon knowledge. It is one of 
the well-established principles of ethics 
that there can be no personal responsi- 
bility or moral accountability without 
knowledge, and that the degree of re- 
sponsibility and accountability depends 
upon the degree of knowledge pos- 
sessed. Take the simple illustration of 
a child who appropriates something 
that does not belong to him. We do not 
call the child a criminal and we do not 
punish him as such. We say the child 
is not personally responsible, simply be- 
cause he does not know any better. But 
the man who has arrived at years of 
maturity and who, in the possession of 
all his faculties, takes something that 
does not belong to him, becomes at once 
a thief and is punished as a criminal, 
simply because we say he knows better. 
So we see that personal responsibility 
219 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

and moral accountability, these insepa- 
rable accompaniments of all intelligent 
beings, are dependent upon knowledge; 
and all knowledge is dependent upon 
consciousness, so consciousness is funda- 
mental to personal responsibility and 
moral accountability. 

Or, still further. Moral accountabil- 
ity is the foundation of all true spiritual 
development. No man or woman ever 
climbs toward the highest things in 
character who does not possess the 
strong, clear-cut conviction of personal 
responsibility and the keen sense of 
moral accountability. Thus, Spiritual 
Growth, the term we use to describe the 
highest development of which humanity 
is capable, depends upon the sense of 
personal responsibility and moral ac- 
countability; these, in turn, depend 
upon knowledge, and knowledge de- 
pends upon consciousness. Ergo : Con- 
sciousness, in its final analysis, is the 
220 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

sure and only foundation of all Spirit- 
ual Growth, Independence and Master- 
ship. So that the whole question of self- 
development and unfolding resolves it- 
self into a question of consciousness. 
The supreme problem of life is the prob- 
lem of Consciousness. 

To fathom the depths of conscious- 
ness and understand all that it is, all 
that it means, all that it involves and all 
of which it is capable, would be to know 
all there is to be known in all the uni- 
verse. So far as is known, the limits of 
possibility in the unfolding of the indi- 
vidual consciousness have never yet been 
determined. Practically, there are no 
limits. 

In our effort to formulate some sort 
of a definition let us seek to clearly un- 
derstand the essential function of con- 
sciousness in human life. For this pur- 
pose let us approach it, first, along the 
line of the physical senses. This is the 
221 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

field of operation with which we are 
most familiar. Let us analyze the proc- 
ess involved in the experience we call 
" sound," and see what takes place. 
The physical atmosphere is set in vibra- 
tory motion at a sufficient number of vi- 
brations per second and of sufficient 
force to make an impression upon the 
physical organ of hearing. These vibra- 
tions travel in radiating circles from the 
point of their inception, until they 
strike upon the outer ear of the indi- 
vidual. There they are gathered and 
thence communicated to the tympanic 
membrane. This, in turn, carries the 
vibrations through the chain of bones of 
the inner ear, until they reach the fluid 
in which are floating filaments of the 
outer end of the auditory nerve. 
These filaments take up the vibrations, 
transmitting them to the auditory 
nerve, by which they are carried to the 
brain center. Now, just what occurs 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

when the vibrations reach the inner end 
of the auditory nerve, no one can say. 
All we know is that then and there 
something does occur that makes an im- 
pression on the consciousness, which is 
recognized by the Ego as " sound." 
The process we call " sight," may be 
traced in the same way. Similar proc- 
esses convey vibrations of touch, taste 
or smell, to the inner extremities of the 
special nerves which convey them. At 
the inner extremities of these special 
nerves, that same " unknown thing " al- 
ways occurs, as the physical sensation 
translates itself into the psychic experi- 
ence of " sound " or " sight " or " taste," 
etc. All our knowledge of the physical 
world comes into personal consciousness 
in this way. 

But we are living in a spiritual as 

well as a physical world. The longer 

we live and the more deeply we reflect, 

the more clearly we come to see that this 

223 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

spiritual world, the invisible behind the 
visible, is the " real " world after all, of 
which all physical manifestations are 
but the " appearances." 

The only thinkable conception of this 
spiritual world is that it also is a mate- 
rial world, though almost inconceivably 
finer in particle and higher in vibratory 
activity than is the physical world we 
know. It is becoming more clear that 
man also possesses a spiritual body 
within this physical body. It, too, is 
made up of " material," but of such fine 
particles and such high vibratory activ- 
ity that most of us are altogether un- 
conscious of its presence in us. This 
spiritual body of man has its own spirit- 
ual senses, capable of receiving, as his 
physical senses are not, the higher vibra- 
tions from the spiritual world. When 
this conception is known and appreci- 
ated as a fact of science as well as relig- 
ion, it becomes possible to understand 
224 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

that the process by which the " Ego " 
receives impressions from the spiritual 
world, through the action of its spiritual 
senses, is so closely analogous to that by 
which it receives impressions from the 
physical world through the physical 
senses, as virtualty to be identical. Both 
are vibratory processes. Both convey 
vibrations from their own particular 
worlds to the individual consciousness. 

This view at least furnishes an ex- 
planation for those experiences common 
to all, which we describe as " new visions 
of Truth," " a new sense of power," " a 
revelation of Duty," " an inspiration," 
" a flash of intuitive light on life's prob- 
lems," etc., etc., — all of them experi- 
ences in Consciousness, which do not 
come to us through the physical senses, 
and yet, which constitute the great real- 
ities of our lives. 

But whatever our theory may be as 
to our relation to the spiritual world, 
225 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

we know that the Ego in man is con- 
scious. We know that it is capable of 
receiving " impressions." We know 
that these impressions result in what we 
call "experiences." We know that 
these experiences constitute our per- 
sonal " knowledge." We also know 
that the impressions we receive come to 
us through both our physical senses and 
our spiritual senses. And we know that 
our physical and spiritual " experi- 
ences " taken together, constitute the 
substance of what we mean by Con- 
sciousness. We have seen that the 
problem of life is the problem of Con- 
sciousness ; we begin to realize now that 
the problem of Consciousness consists 
in extending the Individual Conscious- 
ness and thus enlarging the field of its 
operations. 

How may I take into consciousness 
ever widening experiences and ever in- 
creasing knowledge? This is my prob- 
226 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

lem and yours. The limitations of 
every life are the limitations of that 
life's consciousness, but the only limits 
to consciousness are self-imposed. 

We now see the meaning of the defi- 
nition that Consciousness is " The Sen- 
sorium of the Soul." It is the great 
" Receiver " of all impressions from 
both physical and spiritual worlds. It 
is more a capacity of the " Ego," than 
a faculty. It is, indeed, so fundamental 
in its nature that it constitutes the back- 
ground for all other faculties and capac- 
ities of the Self. 

Consciousness, like everything else in 
the universe, is subject to the law of 
Evolution. We are now prepared to 
see that the essential evolution that has 
been going on from the beginning, amid 
all the changes in external forms, has 
been the evolution or unfoldment of 
consciousness within the forms. Here 
we must begin with the inorganic king- 
227 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

dom. Until quite recently the line was 
drawn hard and fast between the inor- 
ganic and the organic, and the scientists 
said, " On this side the line is dead mat- 
ter, on the other side living matter." 
This line has been well-nigh obliterated 
to-day, and few of our scientists would 
now use the term " dead matter." The 
" vital " conception of the universe in all 
its parts, is steadily gaining ground, — 
that there is no such thing as " dead " 
matter anywhere. Professor Paulsen 
tells us, " Wherever you find the phys- 
ical process, there you will find the psy- 
chic or mental process." In other 
words, even the mineral that seems to 
our eyes so absolutely lifeless and inert, 
nevertheless, does obey the law of its 
own life. The life principle in the min- 
eral may seem to be almost smothered 
by the density of matter that surrounds 
it, but nevertheless, according to this 
newer conception of science, the life 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

principle is always there. As we come 
a step higher and study the lower forms 
of plant life, we find everywhere in na- 
ture an instinctive tendency in living 
organisms to perform certain actions, to 
seek that which will satisfy the wants of 
the particular organism. We call it in- 
stinct, but it is really a simple form of 
mental effort, apparently wholly along 
sub-conscious lines. As we rise higher 
in the world of plant life this tendency 
becomes more clearly discernible. It is 
this which is often spoken of as the " life 
force " in plants. In some of the higher 
forms of plant life, however, there ap- 
pears a suggestion of independent " life 
action " which furnishes a first faint 
hint of conciousness, or at least, of what 
becomes consciousness further on. 

In the lower animal kingdom, we find 
a much higher grade of consciousness, 
varying in degree in the several families 
and species, from the almost plant-like 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

activities of the lowest animal forms to 
the almost human intelligence of the 
highest forms. The degree of con- 
sciousness in the highest animals almost 
approaches that of the lower forms of 
the human race, and certainly reaches 
that of the young child. 

As we enter the human kingdom we 
find still more clearly that from the very 
beginning the evolution of the human 
individual consists in the constant un- 
folding of consciousness. The baby for 
the first two or three years is but dimly, 
vaguely conscious of the outside world; 
as time goes on this feeling of aware- 
ness of outside conditions continues to 
develop, until at length the mind begins 
to turn its gaze inward upon itself, and 
we say self-consciousness has dawned 
for the boy or girl. It is here that we 
recognize the chief distinguishing trait 
between the animal and the human be- 
ing. The child rises out of its animal 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

existence as his simple consciousness un- 
folds into self-consciousness, bringing 
more or less clearly the conception of 
the " I." The great majority of people, 
however, scarcely know what self -con- 
sciousness is. They are in the habit of 
taking themselves as a matter of course, 
and never inquire further. 

Thus it is, after man has reached the 
state of self -consciousness, we still find 
in him different degrees of develop- 
ment. Many persons whom we call 
self-conscious beings, are only self-con- 
scious on the physical plane, as yet. 
There are many of us still living on the 
physical plane. We think of ourselves, 
if we stop to think at all, as physical 
beings. The most real thing about us 
is the body. Such an one speaks of 
" my mind " or " my soul " as things 
belonging to him (the Body) and 
which he uses sometimes, but which are 
not him. Self-consciousness for people 
231 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

living on the physical plane is nothing 
more nor less than physical conscious- 
ness. They eat and drink, sleep and 
wake, work and rest; they go through 
all the physical activities necessary to 
life; they think, just enough to do the 
work that falls to their lot; but they 
rarely make any serious effort to think, 
outside of the little sphere to which their 
daily duties call them. They expend 
just as little mental energy upon life, 
its tasks and problems, as possible. 
They enjoy the life of physical sensa- 
tion; it may be a life of gross appetite 
or passion, or it may be simply a life of 
harmless animal sensation, but they 
have not learned to think of themselves 
apart from the body. It is surprising 
how many there are who have not yet 
unfolded beyond this first stage of self- 
consciousness. 

There is a higher degree of self -con- 
sciousness, as men and women reach the 
232 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

mental plane where they think of them- 
selves chiefly as represented by the in- 
tellect or the mind. To them the real 
Self, the only Self they know, is the In- 
tellect. It makes little difference 
whether they define the intellect as be- 
ing dependent upon the physical brain, 
as does the materialist, or whether they 
regard it as an intangible something 
working through the brain. Either 
view is a matter of intellectual opinion 
with them, in either case they feel that 
the center of their consciousness is in 
their Intellect. They may, more or less 
clearly, realize the wondrous mental 
powers with which they are endowed. 
They may work along various lines of 
mental activity; they may become in- 
ventors or discoverers; they may use 
their creative powers as writers or poets 
or artists ; and yet they have never dis- 
sociated the Self from the thought of 
their minds or their intellects. If you 
233 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ask them about life beyond the grave, 
they will tell you that they believe in 
immortality or, perhaps, hope for im- 
mortality, but they know nothing about 
it. They have never entered into any- 
thing like a consciousness of immortal- 
itj r . They have not yet experienced 
anything of the reality of the " life eter- 
nal " in themselves. This is all right 
and perhaps necessary, as a stage of de- 
velopment. It is never a finality. 

There is a still higher plane of self- 
consciousness. It is experienced when 
men and women come to recognize that 
they are not the body, that they are not 
the intellect, but that they are the soul, 
the ego, the Self that stands behind, or 
within the body and intellect, using 
both, commanding both, mastering all 
the complex forces of life, never mas- 
tered by them. 

We have elsewhere spoken of the 
fundamental distinction between the 
234 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

" I " and the " me." Until this is real- 
ized, so that it becomes the habitual 
working conviction of daily life, always 
present to the mind, never forgotten, 
we need not expect to know the deeper 
meaning of self-consciousness. Have 
you never looked into the eyes of some 
friend or loved one and said to your- 
self: " What is the thing that sits just 
back of those eyes, looking out at me? 
It is intelligent. It knows things. It 
thinks. It calls itself ' I.' But it does 
not really see * me.' It sees only my 
body." And have you not sometimes 
said to yourself, " What is the thing I 
call 'I'? What is this 'I' that sits 
within this physical body I call * mine ' 
and looks out at other things that call 
themselves ' I ' ? This body is mine, but 
it is not ' I.' Some day it will cease to 
respond to my commands, and then ' I ' 
shall creep out of it, and others who call 
themselves ' I ' will bury it, while ' I ' 
235 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

shall go on my way in a world of new 
conditions." It is the frequent reflec- 
tion in this way upon the distinction 
between the " I " as the real Self and 
the body, that leads to deeper realiza- 
tion of true self-consciousness. 

It must be clear that no one can be- 
come in any true sense a real Personal- 
ity, until he has arrived at this stage of 
true self-consciousness, until he has 
realized himself as the true Ego within 
the body, and Master of all mental 
states. Such a self-conscious individual 
realizes that he can and must be the 
master of all his emotional states; that 
his feelings, of whatever nature, need 
not govern him unless he chooses to let 
them; that all feelings are things that 
he can control if he will. In the realm 
of thought, he recognizes that he must 
honestly and fearlessly do his own 
thinking. Most of us are simply the 
echoes of somebody else's thought; we 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

have not yet become self-conscious to 
the degree that we have determined to 
do our own thinking; and this applies 
not only to matters which belong to our 
personal lives, but in the larger realm, 
to the things of government, the prob- 
lems of society, the profound questions 
of ethics and religion. Only here and 
there, as we look back through the cen- 
turies, do we find the individual who 
dared to do his own thinking, who was 
thus truly self-conscious in his intellec- 
tual life; but it is to these few that 
Humanity is most deeply indebted. 
The real leaders are always few; the 
crowd follows. The multitudes get 
their politics, or their religion, or 
their social philosophy from the col- 
umns of the daily newspapers or from 
their neighbors or those who talk most 
frequently in their presence; but the 
truly self-conscious individual, the man 
who realizes that he is the master of his 
237 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

powers of thought, is the man who dares 
to do his own thinking and is not afraid 
to reach conclusions for himself, even if 
they do differ from the conclusions of 
the majority. This self-conscious indi- 
vidual is the man who makes his own 
choices; he is not content to " go round 
with the crowd;" he does not do the 
things he sees other people doing, sim- 
ply because other people are doing 
them; he is not a slave to the dictates 
of fashion ; he is quite willing to be con- 
sidered different from others if need be, 
in order that he may be true to himself 
in all matters of conduct. Whenever 
we come into the presence of this truly 
self-conscious individual, we recognize 
instinctively that his power in business, 
in society, in all relations of life, is the 
power born of self -reverence and self- 
realization. 

But is this the final stage of man's 
development? Is there nothing be- 
238 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

yond? Yes, there is much that lies be- 
yond. This self-conscious individual is 
not yet a true Personality. In tracing 
the development of consciousness we 
have come step by step through the clod, 
the vegetable, the lower forms of ani- 
mal life, the higher forms of animal 
life, through the dim awareness 
state of the baby to the self -conscious- 
ness of the youth, to the higher self-con- 
sciousness on the intellectual plane, and 
finally to the still higher self-conscious- 
ness of the man who realizes that he is 
the Spiritual being who stands behind 
all mental states as their master. But 
there is still something more. This Self- 
conscious individual has not yet reached 
the highest plane of true Personality, 
simply because he has not yet come to 
see himself in his relationships. We 
never truly know anything, until we 
know it in its relation to other things; 
and so we can never know ourselves 
239 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

truly or realize ourselves fully, until we 
understand and realize the relations in 
which we stand to all Reality. 

The self-conscious individual, if he is 
nothing more, may be strong and inde- 
pendent, the master of himself, thinking 
his own thoughts, doing what he be- 
lieves is right regardless of others, and 
yet, he may be self-centered, exclusive, 
conceited and unsympathetic. He has 
not necessarily entered into the great 
conception that his individuality is a 
part of the greater whole ; that his inde- 
pendent life is joined inextricably with 
all other lives; that his self -conscious- 
ness, which must be achieved before he 
can go on to true Personality, is really 
a part of the greater Consciousness of 
the Universe. How few there are, com- 
paratively, who have reached that 
higher plane where they see themselves 
as part and parcel of the great con- 
sciousness of the Infinite God, their 
240 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

self-consciousness merging not only into 
the universal consciousness of God, but 
also into the universal consciousness of 
humanity ! It is this still higher unf old- 
ment of consciousness that we have yet 
to consider. 

But the indispensable step to this 
higher God-consciousness is found in 
the realization, first, of true self -con- 
sciousness. Have we ever stopped to 
realize that the limitations on our lives 
are limitations largely of our own pla- 
cing? If the problem of human life 
consists in the widening of the field of 
consciousness, it rests with each indi- 
vidual to decide just what he shall take 
into that field, and make a permanent 
part of his conscious being. The law 
that applies here is the old, simple law 
of Attention. The things to which I 
give attention are the things that inev- 
itably become a part of my conscious- 
ness. There was a time when you knew 
241 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

little or nothing about business; you 
were a boy at home, and later on, at 
school; and then you entered business 
life, ignorant and inexperienced; to- 
day you are successful and your whole 
life is absorbed in your business. Why? 
Because you have given attention to 
that one kind of activity. You say: " I 
have no interest in reading." Why? 
Because you have given little or no at- 
tention to reading. You say: " I wish 
I knew something about music; I 
should like to enjoy music as I see other 
people enjoying it, but I have no inter- 
est in it." Why? You have never 
given serious attention to music. You 
say : "I wish I could find the inspira- 
tion and help that other people find in 
social life, but for me it is quite mean- 
ingless." Why? You have never given 
attention to cultivating your social in- 
stincts. You say: " Religion is to me a 
sealed book. Men talk about God and 
242 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

the spiritual life; it is very beautiful, 
but after all I know nothing about it, 
and have no real interest in it." Why? 
You have never given the subject seri- 
ous attention. These experiences, 
which are realities in the consciousness 
of others, have no real place in your 
consciousness simply because you have 
never given them real attention. It 
stands to reason. If the devoted busi- 
ness man should give some real time 
and attention to seeking an apprecia- 
tion for music, music would have its 
place in his consciousness; if he should 
give some real time or interest to the 
study of poetry or the great literature 
that is now a sealed book, he would find 
the beauty and truth of poetry and lit- 
erature taking a real place in his con- 
sciousness. If he should give even a 
fraction of time to the things of his 
higher nature, the life of the Spirit 
would be realized in his consciousness 
243 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

with undreamed of power. Only that 
comes into our consciousness and be- 
comes a part of us, to which we give 
attention. It is simple, and yet it is the 
profound law that makes for the unfold- 
ing of consciousness. 

It is practical fatalism that keeps 
most of us from the highest. We are 
saying constantly: " I would do this, 
or, I would be that, if only I had been 
born differently, or if I were in another 
line of business, or if I had more leisure, 
or if I had received a different inherit- 
ance from my parents." The new light 
that is shining for us to-day is helping 
to clearly prove that the limitations 
upon our lives are mostly self-imposed; 
that in the main, we can make our lives 
what we will; that the fundamental 
thing in our personal development is the 
unfoldment of consciousness, and that 
we can take into consciousness whatever 
experiences and knowledge we choose 
244 



SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS 

by simply centering our attention along 
those lines. 

The following lines by Mr. J. A. Ed- 
gerton are not only beautiful, they are 
profoundly true. 

" Back of the deed is the doer, 
Back of the doer the dream, 
Back of the world as we see it, 
Science of things as they seem, 
Waits the invisible Spirit 
Weaving an infinite scheme. 

We are but outward expressions 
Of an interior thought, 
Gleams of the light everlasting 
Through the material caught; 
Parts of the purpose eternal 
Into humanity wrought. 

Mind is the monarch of matter, 
Will is the master of fate; 
Whatever the soul may determine, 
That can it reach soon or late. 
Thoughts have the gift and the power 
That which we think to create. 
245 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Man is the image in little 
Type of the cosmical whole; 
And to be conscious of all things, 
This is his ultimate goal. — 
God and the thought universal 
Seen by the eye of the soul. 

All that is yours, you shall garner; 
All that you earn you shall gain; 
After the toil of the sowing 
There shall be bounties of grain; 
When in your spirit you ripen 
And to your kingdom attain. 

More than the tongue ever uttered, 
More than the eye ever saw, 
Out of the uttermost glory 
Unto yourself you may draw. 
In you are all things potential, 
When you discover the law." 



246 




THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

T is clear that the goal of per- 
sonal life is Self-realization. 
Wherever there is life, there is 
always evident the strain, the 
effort, the struggle to be. The law of 
Life, older than any law that appears 
on the tables of Sinai, is found in the 
inner voice that proclaims unceasingly, 
" Thou shalt strive to be." We have 
traced the unfoldings of consciousness 
from its first faint beginnings far down 
the scale, up to the intelligent conscious- 
ness of the higher animals; we have 
watched the budding self-affirmation in 
the child, and followed its development 
into physical self-consciousness, then 
247 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

into the still higher form of intellectual 
self -consciousness, finally reaching the 
still higher plane of spiritual self-con- 
sciousness, where the individual comes 
to see that He is the Ego who dwells 
within or behind all mental states, and 
possesses the potential power of com- 
plete Self-mastery. Without in any 
sense lessening the emphasis placed 
upon the necessity for strong individ- 
ual Self-consciousness in man's prog- 
ress toward Personality, we must now 
pause to note that the Self-conscious In- 
dividual can never become the true Per- 
sonality until he has paid a great price. 
Taken by itself, the principle of self- 
assertion would lead inevitably to self- 
destruction. Elevated into a universal 
law, it would produce monsters — bare, 
isolated, unrelated individuals. " No 
amount of planing or shaving ever gets 
a board so thin that it has but one side. 
A board with only one side is an ab- 
248 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

surdity. But that is no more absurd 
than an isolated individual who has 
solely and exclusively asserted himself, 
who has aimed at solitary Self-realiza- 
tion." The simple fact is, that involved 
in the very heart of life is another prin- 
ciple as fundamental as self-assertion. 
It may be called self-surrender, or self- 
sacrifice. Whatever it is named, it is the 
altruistic attitude and purpose as op- 
posed to the egotistic. It is not a late 
reversal of nature's primary law, the 
struggle for existence, as some have 
supposed. It is not an " after-thought," 
in creation, it is as structural as the 
other principle. 

Throughout the universe there are 
two great counteracting forces: the 
Centripetal and the Centrifugal, the 
forces that tend to drive everything to 
the center; and those that would drive 
everything away from the center. If 
either force should disappear, chaos 
249 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

would ensue. Without gravitation, 
says Professor James, the world would 
be " an insane sand-heap; " but without 
centrifugal force, the world would be an 
insane, undifferentiated lump, a mean- 
ingless mass, without variety or signif- 
icance. Just as in the universe we find 
order maintained and chaos prevented 
by virtue of the constant presence of the 
two mighty forces, the centripetal and 
the centrifugal, so we find in human 
life, the " self -ward " and the " other- 
ward " tendencies, the one constantly 
moving toward the self-center, and the 
other moving away from the self -center. 
Both tendencies are essential to the com- 
pleted individual. Without either, 
human life would become chaotic. 

There have been those, influenced by 
a shallow philosophy, who have called 
all forms of self-sacrifice, " glorious 
madness; " but it only requires a little 
reflection to perceive that all forms of 
250 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

undeviating self-assertion or selfishness, 
are certainly inglorious madness. 
. Either of these tendencies left to it- 
self would lead to annihilation. It is as 
impossible to conceive of a being living 
its own self-centered, isolated and ex- 
clusive life, as it is to conceive of a be- 
ing without any Self as center, having 
a sort of diffused or impersonal exist- 
ence. It is here that we approach the 
profoundest paradox of Life. To be- 
come a Person, one must both affirm 
and deny himself. Let us put this truth 
in other words. When in the unfolding 
of his life, one has come to individual 
self-consciousness, what is the next step 
he must take? He must now seek to 
develop from self-consciousness into 
consciousness of the All; from self- 
relationship into relationship to the All ; 
and from self-service into service of the 
All. He has come to know himself as 
a particular individual, now he must 
251 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

come to know himself as a part of the 
Whole, as a member of the Universal, 
as the child of God, if he is to attain 
unto the larger life of a true Personal- 
ity. 

He must turn and deliberately face 
the great World- All of which he is a 
part. He must shift the center of his 
interest. The World-All has, to be 
sure, been present in his consciousness 
to a degree all the time. Without a 
certain awareness of the not-self, he 
never could have arrived at such high 
Self-consciousness. But now he must 
pass beyond this to a still higher objec- 
tive consciousness that shall become per- 
manent. He must know Life's great 
Backgrounds. He must become ade- 
quately aware of the vast divine Envi- 
ronment. He must see himself in Hu- 
manity, and realize Humanity in him- 
self. In a word, he must know God. 
And knowing God, in a constantly un- 
252 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

folding God-consciousness, he must re- 
late himself richly and freely to God 
and to all His worlds, thus shifting his 
interest and becoming God-centered. 
For a human being to change his life 
center, for him to pass from self-con- 
sciousness to God-consciousness, is like 
passing out of his egotistic prison house 
into the vast and spacious world of life, 
where he no longer merely revolves 
upon his own private axis, but discovers 
his true orbit about the central life of 
God and flings himself confidently out 
upon it, and determines forevermore to 
fulfill himself in light and law and love. 
In this supreme experience man says 
his " Everlasting Yea " to God, even 
as he utters his " Everlasting Nay " to 
self. It is his great new birth into 
larger and higher worlds. 

Jesus called it a new birth of the 
Spirit, and what name could be more 
expressive or fit? As though, in Jesus' 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

thought, all life grew and unfolded 
toward that spiritual natal day. As 
though all creation waited for the re- 
vealing of this son of God. Then for 
the first time he really begins to live. 
Then for the first time he really discov- 
ers the infinite, divine Environment to 
which he belongs. Before, he was like 
Plato's cave-dweller, living in his nar- 
row house, receiving only fragmentary 
beams from a mysterious Universe of 
light. Now, he has come forth unto the 
great world, and his eyes are greeted by 
the boundless spaces of light, and he 
stands amazed, but at home, in his 
Father's house. 

The Doctrine of Self- Sacrifice has 
nowhere been better stated than in the 
words of Jesus, " Whosoever will save 
his life shall lose it, and whosoever will 
lose his life shall find it." This has been 
called "the great paradox of Jesus;" 
but it not only contains the essence of 
254 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

His Gospel, it is the fundamental truth 
of Life. This doctrine of self-sacrifice 
as taught by Jesus has many times been 
misinterpreted and misapplied. In its 
popular presentation, the chief stress 
has been laid upon the sacrifice of self, 
as if that were the sole end to be gained ; 
whereas Jesus places the emphasis upon 
the finding of a higher Self, made pos- 
sible through the sacrifice of the lower. 
No one ever taught a loftier conception 
of the Self than Jesus when he told men 
they were children of God. No one ever 
sought to inculcate deeper reverence for 
the true Self. To think that Jesus in- 
tended to belittle the Self, or that he 
taught men to hold it in light esteem, is 
to totally reverse his real teachings. To 
him the Self was the thing of supremest 
worth in human life, and for that reason 
he sought to lift it out of all isolation, 
narrowness, exclusiveness and selfish- 
ness, and bring it into vital relation with 
255 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the Infinite Life. Thus every real self- 
sacrifice is made in the consciousness of 
the Self's true relation to the person or 
the object for which the sacrifice is 
made. The man who gives money to 
the poor, carelessly and indifferently, 
makes no real self-sacrifice, because he 
does not appreciate the oneness of his 
life with all lives. Many who are en- 
gaged in various kinds of altruistic 
work are making no genuine self-sacri- 
fice, because they are impelled by no 
strong sense of the " inter-relatedness " 
of human lives. They have leisure and 
do not know what else to do with their 
time ; other people are working in these 
ways; it is quite the popular thing to 
do; and so they take up some form of 
philanthropy more as a fad, or through 
sentimental reasons, than for any real 
desire to give themselves to others. 

Far from teaching that Self- Sacrifice 
meant carelessness or indifference to, 
256 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

much less contempt for, the true Self, 
Jesus taught self-sacrifice as the only 
way to find the true and permanent 
Self. " Whosoever will lose his life, 
shall find it," means that the only 
method by which to discover the real 
Self, or attain to that larger, higher and 
fuller Selfhood, is to sacrifice this iso- 
lated, narrow, shrunken, exclusive self. 
But the sacrifice of self as Jesus views 
it, is always for the sake of finding the 
larger life, the truer Self, the more sym- 
metrical Personality. Sacrifice is never 
an end in itself. Are we not all con- 
scious, whatever expression our altruism 
may take, that we would be tremen- 
dously more efficient as workers, and 
that our message would be wonderfully 
enriched as teachers, if we gave more 
serious attention to the development of 
the Self that stands behind our message 
or our task? The paradox of Jesus 
means that we die in order to live ; that 
257 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

to get we must also give, to gain we 
must lose, to advance we must surren- 
der, to attain we must resign. And 
this principle is not true because Jesus 
states it. He teaches it because it is so 
profoundly true, in the very nature of 
things. 

We all realize how life, at every step 
of the journey, involves the making of 
choices ; and every time we make a pos- 
itive choice we are obliged to close the 
door on the vast range of all other pos- 
sibilities, thus giving up these possibili- 
ties, perhaps, forever. If I go north I 
am limiting myself against going south. 
If I am planning for a holiday, I may 
look over the list of the various places 
I should like to visit, but sooner or later 
I am obliged to select some one place. 
When I make that choice I am shutting 
out all the other possible places, at 
least for the time being; I am making 
the sacrifice of all other plans in order 
258 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

to enjoy the one that seems to me just 
now most desirable. As the young man 
who is preparing for Jiis lifework con- 
tinues his college course year after year, 
becoming more and more familiar with 
his abilities and possibilities, he sees that 
there are a hundred different careers 
open to him, in any one of which he 
might probably be equally successful; 
but the time comes sooner or later when 
he must decide between them all, and 
at last he chooses to specialize in biol- 
ogy. In making that decision he closes 
the door deliberately on all the other 
ninety-nine possibilities that were pre- 
viously open to him. In the same way, 
every choice runs a line of cleavage 
through the entire Universe. If I take 
this j I must give up that Now in all 
our choices we doubtless get what we 
want, but at the same time we often give 
up what we also want. Our choice, in 
other words, entails a real loss. " This 
259 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

hard fact, that each choice strips off a 
whole world of possibilities, has often 
figured in the pessimistic list of woes. 
Whether it shall be reckoned among the 
evils or the goods of life will depend on 
the further question, whether we fix our 
thoughts on what we are getting or on 
what we are losing, — on our Self-real- 
ization, or on the things which it forces 
us to leave behind." 

The more deeply we reflect upon life 
the more clearly we see that every life 
is a vast bundle of relationships. When 
we reach the plane of self-consciousness 
we find, if we have not already discov- 
ered it long before, that our lives are in- 
extricably bound up with a thousand 
and one other lives, forces and influ- 
ences, that cannot be ignored. In every 
human life there is at the outset some- 
thing personal, private and unique, the 
germ that lives in what we call the Self- 
hood, or the Ego, or the latent Person- 
260 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

ality. This certainly is not created by 
our environment. We start with so 
much at least. But having the original 
Selfhood to start with, we find that 
practically everything else we discover 
in our lives has been received from other 
sources. Nebuchadnezzar in his conceit 
could say of himself, "See this great 
person that I have builded." But no 
honest and thoughtful man can speak 
in that way about himself. The self- 
made man is as hard to find as the miss- 
ing link. There simply cannot be such 
a " creature." What you are and what 
I am depends upon the vast and intri- 
cate environment in which we live our 
lives. We are all surrounded con- 
stantly by countless worlds of mighty 
influence. There is the world of Na- 
ture, with its physical atmosphere, its 
light and heat, and all the complex 
sources of physical sensation; there is 
the world of Humanity, with all its 
261 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

struggles and aspirations, its discover- 
ies and inventions, its sentiments, its 
morals and its religion; the world of 
Beauty with all its manifold revealings 
and inspirations ; the world of Law, with 
all its warnings and encouragements; 
the world of Ideals with their uplifting 
and transforming power; the world of 
Spirit, in which " we live and move and 
have our being," and from which there 
come continually into our lives, intima- 
tions of the unseen realities. These 
worlds surround and press closely upon 
us every moment, waking or sleeping. 
We are none of us self-made. We are 
all the constant recipients of countless 
truths and powers and inspirations. 
The only credit we can take to our- 
selves is in the use we make of the 
things which we are daily receiving, of 
all that has come into our lives from 
these sources. This being true, we have 
one supreme duty. If our lives are 
262 r 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

bound up with all the past and all the 
present, if we are related in this real 
sense to all these ensphering worlds that 
constitute our Environment, if all that 
has gone to enrich our Selfhood and 
make possible our Self-development has 
come to us from Life, through all these 
wondrous sources, then in simple grati- 
tude and appreciation it remains for us 
to recognize the manifold relationships 
binding us to Life, and to seek to dis- 
charge the obligation that every rela- 
tionship always imposes, to the fullest 
possible degree. This is only another 
way of stating the principle of self- 
sacrifice. When we arrive at the place 
where we became conscious of all the 
influences that have contributed to make 
us what we are, we can no longer con- 
tinue living in the narrow sphere of mere 
self-assertion ; we must now subordinate 
this narrow, isolated self to the larger 
humanity of which it is a vital member, 
263 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

we must merge our individual selves in 
the world of beauty, in the world of 
ideals, in the world of truth and in the 
world of the spirit. 

To live for the isolated, individual 
self, would be to lose the larger Self, 
but at the same time, to lose the isolated 
self too. We lose our self to save an- 
other and more permanent Self. Illus- 
trations of this principle abound on 
every hand. The mother eagerly sacri- 
fices herself for her child. But why is 
she continually making this sacrifice? 
She is not her true self, with the child 
gone. The sacrifice that saves the child 
is for her the only path by which she 
can realize the Self she prefers. You 
may recall at the time of the burning of 
the " General Slocum," the story of the 
boy who was picked up in the river. 
They asked him how he came to be 
saved. " My mother gave me the life 
preserver, that is how I got saved,'' said 
264 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

the boy. Then he added, " I guess she 
didn't have any herself, 'cause they can't 
find her." It is the mother-love, giving 
up its own life for the sake of the child. 
Like every true mother since the world 
began, she would rather preserve the 
Self, the ideal Self, in the child alive, 
than to be her narrow, isolated self, 
without the child. The patriot leads us 
a step farther. He finds his real Self in 
a free and united country. Without 
this his isolated self is of little worth. 
He dies to the one, to win the other. 
The martyr cares nothing about his own 
life apart from the truth he loves. He 
would rather die and save his truth to 
society, than preserve his isolated self 
in a society that spurned his truth. All 
sympathetic natures enter into this ex- 
perience, at least to a degree, when they 
look upon human suffering. To one 
who feels the deep ties of humanity 
binding us all into One, there is a sense 
265 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

in which every child is one's own child. 
We cannot see children growing up in 
ignorance or poverty or viciousness, 
without somehow feeling that our real 
Self is losing by just so much. It 
touches us personally, and so we resolve 
to give up money or time or strength to 
the work of changing the conditions 
under which these children are living. 
We give up the isolated self for the sake 
of saving the larger Self represented in 
them. The true citizen is always the 
man who feels that everything that 
makes for the welfare of the city or 
state or nation, touches him vitally; 
and so he would rather make sacrifices 
of his own personal time, ease and com- 
fort, and thus seek the larger Self that 
is identified with the state or nation, 
than keep the narrow, shrunken, and 
isolated self. In every age there is al- 
ways going on the immemorial conflict 
between the " old systems and the new 
266 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

light " that dawns from generation to 
generation. Each of us must side with 
truth as he sees it, each one must make 
his own choice, but for every free soul 
who thus makes his choice there is al- 
ways involved something of martyrdom, 
of suffering or sacrifice. But in every 
generation men and women are making 
such sacrifices because they would 
rather preserve the Self plus the new 
light, than keep the old narrow, re- 
stricted self without the new truth. 

The same principle applies to all gen- 
uine friendship. " Love smites the 
chord of self," but it passes out of sight 
only to reappear in a new and nobler 
Self. There is no genuine friend who 
is not willing to surrender self in his 
friendship. He who jealously guards 
the " my " and the " me " in friendship, 
is the one whose life is forever closed to 
the highest blessings and the richest in- 
spirations that come through friendship. 
267 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

True friendship always involves the 
self -giving, if it would find the largest 
returns in its friendship. 

So all work demands self-sacrifice. 
There is nothing that we honestly seek 
to produce that does not carry with it 
something of our very self. No one 
labors — whether it be in the shop, or 
in the factory, or in the office, or in the 
store, or in the schoolroom, or in the 
home, without coming to recognize that 
he cannot be capricious, that he cannot 
follow his own likes or his dislikes, he 
cannot consult his own tastes or inclina- 
tions merely. He must painfully learn 
from others. He must make what the 
world can use or what the world regards 
as beautiful. He must study the tastes 
and the demands of others. He must 
literally become an organ for humanity, 
and personal ideals must be subordi- 
nated to the humanity for whom he 
labors. This is one way in which real 
268 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

self-sacrifice goes into every man's hon- 
est, faithful work. How true it is for 
every one of us, that we spend half a 
lifetime in learning how to do a day's 
work ! We make the surrender, the sac- 
rifice of self, for the sake of gaining the 
skill and efficiency whereby the larger 
and more experienced Self may do its 
work in the few years that remain. 
Yet in the surrender of the inexperi- 
enced self there is found the more effi- 
cient Self of mature manhood. 

Nowhere is this principle so clear as 
in the search for Truth. The Truth- 
seeker cannot think anything he hap- 
pens to like or fancy. He cannot " hold 
his own views." He must surrender his 
prejudices, sacrifice his pet ideas, put 
aside his precious theories. All forms 
of self-interest must be abandoned. He 
must find out what is there, in the world 
beyond him or within him, and then 
without fear or favor must conform his 
269 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

view and his theories to that. " The 
comfortable arm-chair thinker who 
spins his theories of philosophy out of 
his own head, soon discovers how abso- 
lutely the real world ignores him." The 
truth-seeker dedicates himself fearlessly 
and unswervingly to the one task of 
finding out the facts. And we all real- 
ize that where there is one man who 
really knows the facts of the question at 
issue, ten thousand men are ready to 
give their theories, in ignorance of the 
real facts. Every inch of advance in 
Truth's realm is won by self-surrender 
and patient sacrifice. The truth-seeker 
in any realm must come out of his self- 
kingdom, and by some door must enter 
into the universal life. He dies to his 
own self-opinions and theories in order 
to find the Truth. 

The august demands of our moral 
nature also find clearer interpretation 
in this same principle. In the voice of 
270 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

Conscience, which Kant called the 
" great Categorical Imperative " of 
man's life, we discover a will that seems 
other than our own, an authoritative 
call that seems to come from beyond 
ourselves. The sense of Duty defies 
analysis. We have never been able to 
discover its origin either in the race or 
the individual. All attempts to explain 
it from the viewpoint of either race or 
individual, have broken down when the 
facts were marshalled. All we know is 
that every self-conscious being always 
manifests a marked sense of difference 
between Tightness and wrongness. The 
sense of " oughtness " seems as original 
as the forms of space and time. But 
Conscience does not direct all men alike. 
Our actual, concrete conscience which 
we obey or disobey, is the product of 
our organic social life. It is the higher 
Will of the Whole that speaks in indi- 
vidual Conscience ; and to obey Con- 
271 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

science is, once again, to surrender the 
isolated self for the sake of harmony 
with the larger Self of the Whole. 

It is here also that the profoundest 
truth of Religion finds clear illustration. 
" The deepest note of the Gospel — that 
God suffers with us and for us — is also 
the deepest fact of Life. The prophets 
hinted at the truth, Jesus revealed it 
fully in His life and death, and now our 
modern social ethics has discovered the 
same truth by the independent path of 
scientific study." God is not contained 
in any exclusive or isolated selfhood but 
has passed out of His selfhood into the 
lives of humanity and become the uni- 
versal Life of the Whole. Indeed this 
is the central message of Christianity. 
There can be no spiritual being, whether 
it be the immature soul of Man strug- 
gling from afar towards the completion 
of Personality, or the Infinite Father, 
who must not sooner or later pass out 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

of his isolated selfhood into the lives of 
others, and thus become one with the 
larger Life of the Whole. If this be 
the meaning of life and religion, then 
our salvation is accomplished when we 
recognize this law of self-sacrifice as the 
law of the Universe, and cheerfully sur- 
render the isolated, narrow, exclusive 
self to the larger Universal Life of 
God. We cannot live to ourselves, we 
cannot die to ourselves, we cannot sin 
to ourselves, nor cleanse our lives from 
sin all to ourselves. Life cannot escape 
the principle of vicariousness which is 
woven into all its strands. The higher 
the Person in the unfolding of Spiritual 
life, the clearer will be the recognition 
of life's relationships and the more in- 
sistent the calls to self-sacrifice, — the 
perpetual surrender of the lower for the 
higher. 

But doubtless there are those who are 
saying, " Is not this principle of self- 
273 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

sacrifice, of dying to live, of surrender 
for the sake of gaining the larger Self, 
simply a higher form of selfishness? 
To lose in order to gain, to give up in 
order to get, to surrender in order to 
achieve, is not this simply a refined kind 
of self-seeking? " As we use these 
terms, " Egotism," and its opposite, 
" Altruism," they usually refer to ex- 
ternal manifestations, and in this sense 
are always relative terms. Whether an 
action is really egotistic and selfish, or 
altruistic and unselfish, depends upon 
the end that is sought. Some of the 
people whom we have called egotists 
because of certain actions, have really 
been altruists, because their motives 
were unselfish. And many a saint who 
has been canonized for his altruism has 
at heart been an egotist. It all depends 
upon the motive that lies behind the act. 
If we are making the sacrifice or the 
surrender primarily or merely for the 
274 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

sake of the gain, then we are selfish; if 
we are doing it for the sake of the thing 
itself, we are unselfish. You resolve to 
espouse some great cause ; you are will- 
ing to do the hard thing, to live, if need 
be to die, for the sake of some principle 
or truth. Why? Not to have men say 
" he did it," but to do the deed, because 
your life is inseparably one with those 
whose lives benefit by the deed. 

When Chief Walsh went into that 
burning building recently to rescue 
human lives in danger, do you imagine 
he stopped to say, " This is an act of 
heroism on my part ; it will get into the 
papers, and I will be the recipient of 
many honors and much praise. It will 
mean promotion for me? " Not at all. 
There was no thought in his mind ex- 
cept of the human need, the opportu- 
nity to save human lives, and his sense 
of duty as a man and a Fireman to sur- 
render his isolated self for the sake of 
275 






THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

others. " The deed is sufficient in it- 
self, and for the moment absorbs the 
doer of it. We lose thought of self in 
the end which we seek to realize. We 
do not think of its rebound upon us. 
We are not remotely calculating the cu- 
bits which this will add to our self- 
realization. Two things only fill our 
thought, — what we are losing and 
what we are giving somebody else. In 
every case where we obey the call of the 
Whole and make the surrender of the 
isolated self, we do find the larger Self, 
but we did not aim at it at the time." 

So we see why it is not enough, sim- 
ply to become a self-conscious individ- 
ual. Individualism, when consistent, is 
strictly self-centered. It is occupied 
solely with its own Ego. It ignores 
everything outside of its own circle. It 
never can succeed. The mills of the 
Universe will grind it to powder first: 
This is why the self must be sacrificed, 

276 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

the individualistic Ego surrendered, the 
particular raised up into the Universal. 
This is the only true thing to do with 
the self. It must not act as though it 
was not a part of the whole. It must 
not attempt to unfasten its innumerable 
fastenings. It must not try to set at 
naught the Universe. Rather it must 
live as a part ever must, in the mutual- 
ity and harmony of God's universal 
laws. Individualism as a stage of de- 
velopment is absolutely indispensable. 
As a finality, it is arrested development, 
and becomes, in a cosmos of mutualities 
and reciprocities, a sheer monstrosity. 

The only way to save a seed is to 
plant it, and the only way to save phys- 
ical strength is to use it, and the only 
way to save love is to give it away, and 
the only way to save our youth is to pass 
the finer soul of it on into manhood and 
womanhood. So the only way to save 
the self, in the true sense, is to merge it 
277 






THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

in the larger life of humanity and bring 
it into sympathetic relationship with all 
surrounding worlds which make up our 
Divine Environment. The negative 
word " self-sacrifice " is hardly adequate 
to describe the splendid positive experi- 
ence we have been considering. Dedi- 
cation or consecration are better words. 
To truly save the Self is to dedicate it to 
the service of all life, the truth of all 
worlds, the God of all the Universe. 

If our eyes were only open to see and 
our hearts sympathetic to understand, 
we would discover the workings of this 
spirit of self-sacrifice or consecration on 
every hand. The street-sweeper who 
cleans carefully in some dark corner 
where he knows the inspector will never 
look, simply because he realizes that it is 
his duty to clean the street, is actuated 
by the spirit of sacrifice or consecration. 
He is cleaning the streets for the com- 
mon good. The humble shoemaker in 
278 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

some inland town who makes his honest 
shoes, knowing nothing about the larger 
affairs of business, or who is going to 
buy his shoe or wear it in the days to 
come, yet putting his best ability into 
it and his best workmanship upon it, is 
filled with the spirit of consecration; he 
is merging his personal life in the life of 
the whole; he is making shoes for hu- 
manity. His daily prayer is, " Let me 
do my best, let me give my utmost, let 
me surrender all that I have to my work 
for humanity. " The daughter who puts 
away the dreams of youth and shuts the 
door of opportunity for the sake of min- 
istering to an invalid mother or aged 
father, is filled with the spirit of conse- 
cration; she is dying to one self, and 
yet, she is finding the larger and nobler 
Self. The slum- worker who spends his 
days studying conditions in order that 
the slums one day may no longer exist, 
is actuated by the spirit of consecration. 
279 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

The Christian worker who goes forth in 
the endeavor to bring other lives into 
fellowship with the Christ of Love, is 
guided by the spirit of consecration. 
All these are but examples of consecra- 
tion that we may find wherever we 
really look for it. This spirit, wherever 
you find it, is the real essence of religion, 
is the very life of God, and marks the 
unfolding of the lower, isolated self into 
the higher God-consciousness. For love 
and unselfishness and devotion are born 
of God, and lead to God. 

The only way to really save the indi- 
vidual self is to dedicate it; the only 
way to eternalize the self is to surrender 
it to the Highest. It is the young Sir 
Galahad in the splendor of young 
manhood consciously kneeling, for the 
consecration of his strong individuality 
to all noble causes. When the young 
poet solemnly dedicates himself to the 
service of the beautiful, the true, the 
280 



THE COST OF PERSONALITY 

good, and gives back in great poems 
what they first gave him in lofty vision, 
then he becomes a poet. When the citi- 
zen gathers up his energies and talents 
and reverently lays them on the altar of 
his country, giving back in disinterested 
service the gifts he has received, then he 
becomes a patriot. And when the hu- 
man individual in the kingliness of 
strong individuality stands face to face 
with God and His Universe, and rever- 
ently gathering up the total powers of 
his life, solemnly and joyously dedicates 
them to God and Man, giving back in 
high and enduring service the talents 
with which he had been entrusted, then 
he takes his true place as a human being, 
then he completes the full idea of a 
Man, then, and only then, does he at- 
tain to true Personality. 



281 




THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

HE question arises, whether in 
our discussion of Personality 
we have not been describing 
an unattainable Ideal? Is it 
not an abstract conception, very noble 
and beautiful to be sure, but impossible 
of realization in life and character? Or, 
as we look back through history, do we 
find anywhere the practical object les- 
son? Among the many great ones of 
earth is there any life that illustrates 
and seems to fulfill the high Ideal that 
we have attempted to set forth ? Every 
one will admit that there is in history 
such an object lesson. We have not 
been describing an ideal that belongs 
to the thought-world only, but one that 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

has been lived. Personality, as defined 
by modern psychology, has been en- 
shrined in the life, of at least one char- 
acter in history. 

In Jesus of Nazareth we find the 
actual illustration of the meaning of 
true and complete Personality. Jesus 
stands out in history with a distinction 
that is unsurpassed in the case of any of 
the other heroes of antiquity. It makes 
no difference, for our immediate pur- 
pose, whether we call him human or di- 
vine, the fact remains that no individual 
in all the range of the centuries has so 
deeply impressed his Personality upon 
the page of history. In His name more 
deeds of kindness have been wrought 
and, strange though it seems, more cru- 
elties have been practised, than in the 
name of any other single individual. 
More literature has grown up around 
this Life, dealing with its story, the 
problems suggested, His teachings, His 
283 



TIIK CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 
religious and ethical ideas, than in the 

case of any oilier single character ill his- 
tory. During the last seventy-five 
years, when Man's thought has been 
most of all absorbed in scientific pur- 
suits, more biographies of this Life have 
been written than in all the preceding 
Centuries taken together. With the 
passing of the centuries the interest in 
1 1 is life and personality grows steadily 
wider and deeper. 

There are many different approaches 
to this Life historical, theological, 
ethical, spiritual, etc., but now we are 

to draw near to II im along the modern 

pathway of psychology. Let us rever- 
ently attempt to analyze 1 1 is Personal 
ity, and ask if indeed it does realize and 
fulfill the high ideal that we have sel 
before us. 

Like every one of us, .Jesus learned 

the fundamental lessons of life in the 

great school of unfolding consciousness. 
284 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

The appetite for the marvelous In th« v 
early life of great men is almost in- 
stinctive* In this spirit the fathers of 
the early Church collected Legends of 
the early life of Jesus, stories of super- 
human infancy, of what the child said 
and did. Many of these legends are 
most absurd; all of them, as resting on 
no authority, arc rejected. Very differ- 
ent from this is the Bible narrative. It 
records no marvelous stories of infan- 
tine sagacity or miraculous powers. 

Both in what it tells and in what it dors 

not bell, one thing is plain, that the life 

of Jesus was natural. There was first 
the blade, then the ear, then the full corn 
in the ear. One verse in the gospel nar- 
rative is most luminous: "The child 
grew, and increased in strength and 
wisdom, arid in favor with God and 
man." lie was a child, and a child that 
grew in heart, in intellect, in spirit, in 
favor with God; not a man in child's 
285 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

years; no full-fledged powers at the 
outset. We know that He was child- 
like as other children, for in after years 
His brethren thought His fame strange 
and His townsmen rejected Him. We 
know Him in a picture at once, by the 
halo around His brow, but the halo be- 
longs to the picture. There was no 
such glory in His real life to mark Him 
out among men. He was in the world 
and the world knew Him not. His life 
unfolded naturally as our lives unfold. 
Gradually and gently Jesus awoke to 
the consciousness of life and its mani- 
fold meaning ; little by little He opened 
His eyes upon this outer world and be- 
came conscious of His relations to other 
objects; slowly He found His life in 
possession of a Self; by degrees He 
came to an appreciation of the beauties 
of nature and of life. Gradually, and 
not at once, He embraced the sphere of 
human duties and awoke to His earthly 
286 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

relationships, one by one, — the son, the 
brother, the citizen, the master. 

One event is recorded of His early 
boyhood experience that gives us an- 
other clue to the naturalness of the un- 
folding of the conscious life within 
Him. With His parents He had gone 
for a visit to Jerusalem. After His 
father and mother had started home 
they missed the boy, and turning back 
discovered Him in the Temple in con- 
versation with the religious teachers, 
both asking and answering questions. 
When they expressed annoyance at the 
anxiety He had caused them, you recall 
His significant reply: " How is it that 
ye sought me, wist ye not that I must 
be about my Father's business? " He 
was then twelve years of age. What 
was this experience but the dawning of 
the wider consciousness which we have 
seen begins to make its presence felt 
during the adolescent period of youth, 
287 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

when the self, already awakened to con- 
sciousness, begins to feel, dimly and 
vaguely perhaps, that it is a real part 
of the larger Self and is related vitally 
to the Whole. 

Then He returns with His parents to 
the Nazareth home. There follows the 
period of eighteen years concerning 
which no record has been preserved. 
Our narrative is completely silent as to 
the experiences of those long years, but 
from our knowledge of life's unfolding 
we can fill in the general outlines of 
what must have taken place in His inner 
life. In its main features it must have 
closely resembled our experiences in 
these years of storm and stress. He 
must have felt within Himself the strug- 
gle of the vague transition time between 
the age of the child and the age of the 
man. He must have experienced the 
inner struggle between the flesh and the 
spirit. He must have known the real 
288 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

meaning of the temptations, the dis- 
couragements, the loneliness, the heart 
hunger, so characteristic of this period 
of growth. What does that strange 
story of " the temptation in the desert " 
mean, except that Jesus faced the 
phantoms of egotism, pride and self- 
ishness, and heard all the siren voices 
which are constantly urging a man to 
get and enjoy for himself? He too, 
like all other men, stood at the point 
where the universe appears to revolve 
around the planet of one's little life. I 
do not think we are justified in believing 
that the temptations in Jesus' life were 
crowded into this one single experience 
of forty days just prior to His public 
ministry. He was tempted " in all 
points like as we are; " and for us, all 
of life involves the temptation in some 
form. The parabolic story of " the 
temptation " simply gives us a glimpse 
into the essence of the inner struggle 
289 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

that was not completely ended till He 
cried, " It is finished." 

All that we know from the narrative 
is that finally He emerges from ob- 
scurity and begins His public ministry. 
He is thirty years of age; He has 
reached the time of mature manhood. 
And now we see that He has not only 
stepped out of the early home and the 
carpenter shop and the apparent silence 
of all these eighteen years, but He has 
also emerged from the secondary or 
transitional period of life in which most 
men are still content to remain, into the 
higher and permanent stage of true 
Personality. His self-consciousness 
has now fully unfolded into God-con- 
sciousness. This is the fundamental 
and distinguishing characteristic of His 
personality. This is why Jesus holds 
the unique place He does in human his- 
tory. This is the secret of the wondrous 
influence that has flowed forth from His 
290 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

life through all these centuries. We 
find henceforth that the self-conscious- 
ness of this man is a God-consciousness. 
Out of all the storm and stress period 
of His early life He has reached the 
point where He has made the great 
surrender. His previous self -conscious- 
ness has lost itself, or merged itself, or 
become one, with the larger conscious- 
ness of God. So we hear Jesus speaking 
words like these: "My meat and my 
drink is to do the will of my Father 
which is in Heaven." And again, " My 
Father and I are one ; " not thereby 
identifying His personality with that of 
God, because in another place He says, 
" My Father is greater than I ; " but one 
in spirit, in feeling, in thought and will, 
even as He praj^ed that we might " all 
be one." When one comes to Him, and 
calls Him " good master," He replies, 
" Why callest thou me good? There is 
none good save One, that is God." And 
291 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

yet while making this distinction be- 
tween God and Himself, it was as if 
the consciousness of God had so flooded 
His life as to absorb into Itself His iso- 
lated consciousness, so that He lived 
continually in the realization that it 
was God's life within Him. He has 
surrendered the isolated, individual self, 
and has found His larger Self in the 
consciousness of God. Sometimes this 
consciousness of God takes form in the 
glad sense of fellowship with Him. 
Sometimes He finds in God the ideal 
of human living. Sometimes He bows 
before His unapproachable perfection. 
Sometimes it finds expression in His 
sense of complete dependence upon 
God, as when He prays all night alone. 
Under one form or other the thought 
of God seems always present to Him. 

Whatever the subject on which He 
speaks, this thought of the ever-present 
God mingles in the discourse. Many 
292 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

Christian teachers have spoken of the 
" Sermon on the Mount " as if it con- 
tained something less than religion. 
They have regarded it as Jesus' state- 
ment of " the ethics " of Christianity, 
but they have said that we must look 
elsewhere to find the real gospel, the 
true religion of Christianity. But I 
defy anybody to read the " Sermon on 
the Mount " thoughtfully, without feel- 
ing the " sense of God " that breathes 
and pulsates through every phrase of 
those wondrous sayings of Jesus. The 
deep meaning of these profound prin- 
ciples, their true significance, and their 
mighty inspiration are all due to the 
God-consciousness out of which Jesus 
speaks. His thoughts, His ruling ideas, 
His plans, He feels are given Him. He 
has no " original thoughts; " He dares 
do nothing of Himself. He even feels 
that His love is not His own; it flows 
from the perennial fountain of Being. 
293 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

And yet we feel that His personality is 
fullest and richest when He yields Him- 
self completely to the domination of the 
Infinite Life. Even the God-like pow- 
ers which He arrogates to Himself, are 
assumed and exercised by Him only in 
this same deep sense of the oneness of 
His life with God's life. Herein lies 
the power of His words: that He feels 
He is speaking not for Himself, for 
the historical Jesus, but rather, for that 
richer, deeper, larger Self, the God who 
lives in Him and lives in us. This is 
the real reason that men have called 
Him divine; not because of miracles; 
the ability to work miracles, taken by 
itself, makes no man divine. It was 
what He was in His deep God-con- 
sciousness, it was the truth that came 
welling up out of His God-conscious- 
ness and that finds a response in the 
God-consciousness that dwells in all 
men, to a greater or lesser degree, — 
294 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

it is this that constitutes the divinity of 
His Life. 

Another remarkable fact is found in 
the unity of His consciousness. In the 
period of self-conscious struggle no 
man makes any sense or unity out of 
the checkered experiences of his own 
life. What harmony is there between 
success and reverses, pleasure and pain, 
sorrow and joy, love and enmity, the 
death of the body and the life of the 
soul? It is the beauty of Jesus' life that 
all the material of this tangled web of 
human experience is taken up, used, 
assimilated and wrought out into har- 
mony and unity. " The scenes of the 
hard peasant life, the mother's songs 
over her child, the pictures drawn from 
the shop, the synagogue, the wilderness, 
the stormy lake, the ancient Hebrew 
history, every childish disappointment, 
words of love and friendship, the hos- 
pitable home at Bethany, the harsh 
295 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

taunting voices of the Pharisees, the 
fickleness of the crowds, the hatred of 
the leaders, the Roman soldiers on the 
march, the shallow faith of His disci- 
ples, the betrayal, the scene in Pilate ? s 
judgment hall, the crucifixion — what 
detail or incident can be left out? " And 
yet what discord is there that fails to be 
resolved into the higher harmony? As 
we have seen, this is the test of Person- 
ality: that one's entire life becomes a 
Unity, like the life of God. 

He is not optimistic one day and pes- 
simistic the next. He is not confident 
as to the coming of the kingdom of God 
one day and utterly discouraged about 
its coming the next. He is not friendly 
in spirit one day and at enmity with 
people the next. He does not subordi- 
nate material things to the life of the 
Spirit one day and become grasping 
and absorbed in " things " the next. 
Men have described two personalities 
296 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

in Him, the human and the Divine. 
But that would be to destroy the unity 
of His life and make Him an unreal 
being. The record discloses no divided 
will, no dual or " split personality," or 
separate aspects of a man's life, claim- 
ing to be independent of each other. 
But throughout, there is the splendid 
unity of one who has found Himself in 
the larger consciousness of the God in 
whom He believes He lives, and Who, 
He believes, lives through Him. 

So far then, Jesus does fulfill in Him- 
self our ideal of the true Personality. 
He begins life as a child. He grows. 
The consciousness in Him unfolds nat- 
urally and normally if we can trust the 
Scripture narrative. He enters the 
" struggle " period of life and faces 
temptations of every kind, and beats 
them back and overcomes the lower 
self. " He was perfected through suf- 
fering " we read. If these words mean 
297 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

anything, they mean that there was a 
time when He was less perfect than He 
afterward became. His life was like 
your life and mine in its natural unfold- 
ing. But there came the day when we 
see Him step forth in the splendid unity 
of His mature manhood, His self-con- 
sciousness lost in the God-consciousness 
within. Henceforth, as He moves 
among men, He is living not from His 
individual, isolated or exclusive self as 
a center, but, to employ language we 
have already used, He has dedicated 
and consecrated Himself, His whole in- 
dividuality, strong as it is, to the larger 
life of God and Man. Do you ask how 
Jesus, alone of all men, attained to this 
supreme height of spiritual unfold- 
ment? I do not know, any more than 
I know how Shakespeare attained the 
height of his dramatic genius, or Ra- 
phael, his artistic genius, or Tennyson, 
his poetic genius. It is the mystery of 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

our unfolding life. I only know that 
the same God dwells to a degree in all 
men, and that He dwelt in Jesus of 
Nazareth so supremely, that the human 
heart that has really come to know Him, 
instinctively calls Him divine. 

But we have seen that Personality 
consists of the emotional, intellectual, 
and volitional natures bound together 
in self-conscious unity, and that in its 
higher stage, — in the true Personality, 
— this self-consciousness becomes God- 
consciousness. In the fundamentals, we 
have seen how completely Jesus fulfills 
the ideal of Personality. Let us now 
apply the other phases of our definition 
to His life. 

What do we know about His emo- 
tional nature? No one can deny that 
Jesus was possessed of strong feelings? 
Thinking, first, of His own subjective 
feelings, we may ask whether jealousy, 
pride, envy, strife, hatred and the other 
299 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

forms of malign feeling to which we all 
are more or less prone, had any place in 
His emotional life. To ask the ques- 
tion is to answer it. So far as the record 
discloses we do not find that Jesus is 
actuated by any of the baser feelings. 
He evidently mastered all temptations 
to such expression of his emotional na- 
ture. How is it with that other class of 
feelings which includes fear, worry, 
anxiety and doubt? You recall how 
Jesus speaks about the needlessness of 
worry. If any one ever had cause for 
fear or anxiety about his future life, or 
the success of his mission in the world, 
surely Jesus had. But He did not 
simply teach the sin of worry and fear ; 
He lived what He taught. So He 
moves among men, many of whom, per- 
haps, could not understand Him and 
many who did not want to understand 
Him, undismayed and unaffrighted. 
Calmly, steadily and serenely He pur- 
300 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

sues His way towards the great tragic 
end. In all His thought and conversa- 
tions with the disciples there breathed 
an implicit trust in His Father, as 
though He felt that nothing could 
come to Him, or to any other life, but 
what would work out for the best. His 
love for God and man was so perfect 
that it had cast out all basis for fear 
and anxiety. Or, take another mani- 
festation of our emotional life, in the 
form of sorrow, grief, despair, regret 
or remorse. We read how Jesus weeps 
with those who weep; how when death 
took from Him as well as from the two 
sisters, the loved friend Lazarus, Jesus 
shed genuine tears; and how, as He 
stands in the presence of human suffer- 
ing or misery, He expresses again and 
again the feeling of sorrow. But it is 
only momentary; He never lets it con- 
trol Him, it never wholly darkens His 
sky or shadows His pathway; He 
301 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

never lets it bring into His life the de- 
pression that lingers until it poisons all 
the sources of joy. He was no stranger 
to the natural feelings of human sorrow 
but He was never mastered by them. 

No one will gainsay that Jesus, more 
fully and completely than any other 
person in history, gathered up all these 
splendid forces of the emotional nature 
and gave them true and unified expres- 
sion in the supreme passion of Love. 
We cannot analyze any phase of the 
emotional life of Jesus without reali- 
zing that all the deep, strong feeling of 
His rich nature proceeds from and finds 
its completion in love, sympathy, kind- 
ness, and brotherliness. These are the 
words that best describe His emotional 
nature. But what do we mean by 
Love? This, in turn, needs analysis. 
His was a love, purely disinterested, 
that did not hesitate because of any 
form of self-interest. He loved simply 
302 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

for the sake of loving, not because of 
any return that He might receive. So 
He spent the hours of the days and 
nights in ministering to the poor, the 
halt, the lame, the blind, the outcast, 
simply because His heart overflowed 
spontaneously and naturally with disin- 
terested love. His love found constant 
expression in compassion for human 
needs. Other great teachers have de- 
scribed in an abstract way the ideal of 
love, and held up the principle of love 
for men to follow. Jesus did more than 
that. He not only taught the doctrine 
of love to God and love to men, as the 
alpha and omega of religion, but he 
lived the life of love. His love was 
more than an ideal, more than a senti- 
ment; it was the inevitable outflowing 
of His nature, in which all forms of 
feeling had been focused in the supreme 
passion of His life. In the presence of 
such all-mastering love, all forms of dis- 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

cordant feeling naturally disappeared 
forever. 

How shall we analyze His intellec- 
tual nature and expect to do more than 
hint at the sources of His mental 
strength? Jesus possessed the inquir- 
ing mind, which is the secret of all men- 
tal growth. One of the few things told 
us of his boyhood, is of how He was 
found asking questions of the " Doc- 
tors." During His public ministry, we 
read repeatedly of His conversations 
with all kinds and conditions of men and 
women and how He " questioned them." 
Jesus lived in close and constant com- 
munion with nature. When we recall 
that the great majority of His illustra- 
tions and parables were drawn from 
nature, — the mountains, or the sky, or 
the sea, or the tiny seed, or the flowers, 
or the birds, or the little child, does it 
not seem that Jesus was, par excellence, 
the scientific teacher? If He were alive 
304 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

to-day, with his deep insight into the 
soul of nature, Jesus would doubtless 
talk as Henry Drummond used to talk 
to the college students, drawing His 
illustrations as well as His inspiration 
from modern science and its marvelous 
disclosures. His was the inquiring 
mind, without which He never could 
have " increased in wisdom." 

Another clue to the sources of His 
mental strength is found in the supreme 
emphasis He put upon the place and 
value of Truth. No one, in all the range 
of history, has ever paid a higher com- 
pliment to Truth or defined more pro- 
foundly its function in human life than 
Jesus, when He uttered those words, 
" Ye shall know the Truth and the 
Truth shall make you free." We have 
scarcely begun to enter into the deeper 
meaning of these words. The world 
has been saying for centuries, "it is 
force that will make you free, or strat- 
305 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

egy, or shrewdness, or fame, or social 
power, or money," or something else 
proceeding from selfishness. Jesus 
brushes aside as utterly false all these 
conceptions, when He says " the Truth 
alone makes men free." In the Gospel 
of John especially, Jesus is constantly 
expressing His supreme estimate of, 
and profound reverence for the Truth. 
And when He is about to leave the dis- 
ciples, His final word of comfort to 
them is this: "When I am gone the 
spirit of Truth will come and He shall 
guide you into all Truth." He lived 
for Truth; He died for Truth; and 
His deepest desire for men was that 
they might come to know the Truth, 
not merely the truth about things, but 
the Truth that lies hidden within things 
— the essential Truth of life. 

But let us analyze the intellect of 
Jesus more specifically. His was the 
intellect of one who " spake with au- 
306 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

thority and not as the scribes." The 
scribes were the teachers of the time. 
They were learned in the letter of the 
law, but they could not discern its 
spirit. So their interpretations were 
superficial, technical, trivial, heartless. 
They were slavish traditionalists for- 
ever quoting as authorities the earlier 
Rabbins. Jesus teaches as if He were 
the first who had ever spoken, as if the 
authority for His statements of Truth 
resided in Himself, not in teachers dead 
and gone. So far as men were con- 
cerned He did His own thinking, in the 
conviction that He had immediate ac- 
cess to the source of all Truth. No 
teaching was ever more fresh and vital 
than His, and so men listened, as they 
always will listen to the man who dares 
to think for himself. Jesus' mind dealt 
only with the elementals of Truth. 
This is always a characteristic of the 
great thinker in contrast with the " lit- 
307 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

tie thinker." Of necessity He teaches 
not incidentals but essentials, not eph- 
emerals but eternals, not facts merely 
but truths. Such only are the subjects 
that Jesus is interested in. Such alone 
are the themes about which His mind 
revolves. We have heard people say, 
' Why did He not tell us what to do in 
each instance; why did He not formu- 
late a creed for us to believe; why did 
He not tell us how often we should go 
to church, or indicate which church we 
should join; why did He not lay down 
a set of rules or leave the world an ex- 
plicit program ; why did He leave us so 
free? " Simply because His mind was 
so great, and also, because He had too 
much respect for our minds. Jesus 
cared nothing about beliefs as such. He 
enunciated great principles; not so 
many of them either, but the few are 
tremendously profound and universal. 
Jesus dealt only with the elemental 
308 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

things of life and religion, and the 
thousand and one things that belong to 
the mere fringe of religion, the mere 
circumference of life, about which the 
theologians have quarreled, and the 
ministers have preached much too often, 
were apparently matters about which 
Jesus never even thought and in which 
He had no vital interest. Here looms 
large the greatness of His Intellect. 
He dwelt continually in the presence of 
the elementals, the essentials, the eter- 
nal things of life. 

Have you never marveled how Jesus, 
living 1900 years before the new psy- 
chology was known, gave expression to 
truths and enunciated principles that 
are in exact harmony and accord with 
the latest findings of Psychology? In 
the " Sermon on the Mount " Jesus is 
seeking to lay His finger on the real 
source of sin, and the true method of 
overcoming evil. One by one, He takes 
309 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the different forms of sin — murder, 
stealing, impurity, etc., and in each in- 
stance traces it back to its source in the 
wrong thinking. The real sin, He says, 
is not in the overt act of killing some- 
body, but back there in the murderous 
thought, — the anger or hatred or jeal- 
ousy or envy. The sin of impurity is in 
the impure thought out of which, at 
length, the impure act inevitably pro- 
ceeds. So that the real place to free 
one's life from sin, says Jesus, is at the 
source, in the mind that harbors the 
wrong thoughts. Change your think- 
ing; substitute for all these discordant 
forms of thought the harmonious 
thoughts of Love, " and ye shall be per- 
fect, even as your Father in Heaven is 
perfect. " Could anything be more 
modern? Could any teaching be in 
closer harmony with our Psycholog- 
ical teaching as to the real source of 
wrong-doing and the true method of 
310 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

overcoming all evil tendencies in our 
lives ? 

This suggests that another source of 
the intellectual strength of Jesus lay in 
His intuitional powers. This same 
" Sermon on the Mount " is utterly 
wanting on the surface in every sign of 
formal logic; and yet it is profoundly 
logical. But it is the logic of instinct, 
the argument of insight, the demonstra- 
tion of intuition. Jesus does not start 
from a premise, and then reason step by 
step to a conclusion. But one after an- 
other, the clear, simple statements fall 
from His lips, carrying their own con- 
viction unaided by logic. His is the 
teaching of one in whom intuition is the 
ultimate source of Truth. This is also 
true of all thinkers of the highest rank, 
like Emerson or Browning or Abraham 
Lincoln. This is the secret of the power 
of most of the greater writers in prose 
or poetry. They cannot explain just 
311 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 
how or why they express the truths 
they do. They simply write what 
" they feel they know." So Jesus, in 
the pre-eminent command of His men- 
tal forces, had somehow learned the su- 
preme art of getting into direct com- 
munication with the infinite source of 
Truth through His intuitional powers, 
so that the Truth of the Universal 
Mind welled up in His conscious- 
ness and was given by Him to the 
world. 

We might continue indefinitely the 
consideration of the different phases of 
the intellectual life of Jesus, but enough 
has been said to warrant us in feeling, 
that in this respect also, the Personality 
of Jesus conforms to our highest ideal. 
He is the master of His intellectual 
powers. He has learned how to make 
them His servants so that they respond 
readily and freely to His commands. 
No wonder His words remain as the 
312 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

permanent source of blessing to all 
mankind. 

No one can question the volitional 
powers of Jesus. It would be strangely 
incongruous if He could have impressed 
the pages of history as He has, and yet 
been a man of weak will. His will was 
the splendid power by which His whole 
life becomes consistent. He might have 
known love as a sentiment but not as 
the central principle of character. He 
might have thought nobly but not lived 
nobly. The greatness of His Will is 
revealed in the fact that His whole life 
is a unity ; in all its parts it coheres and 
goes together. The noble thoughts and 
the unselfish feelings are taken by His 
will and habitually translated into the 
deeds, into the perfect character, into 
the symmetrical manhood. 

How can we better describe the Will 
of Jesus in a single phrase, than to say 
that it was throughout " good- will." 
313 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

His unique consciousness of the divine 
forces within, the infinite life constantly 
welling up in Him anew, the emotions 
concentrated in love, the mind in vital 
communion with the universal mind, — 
all these are given back again to Life, 
to God and Humanity in countless 
forms of good-will. To Him good-will 
was God's will. So it was the only 
natural and consistent thing, as He 
sought to do the will of God, to live out 
the spirit of good-will to all men. Thus 
He preached and taught, and healed the 
sick, and comforted the sorrowing, and 
ever sought to awaken the spiritual 
aspiration and arouse the latent germ 
of the divine life in men and women. 

It seems clear, with our scientific con- 
ception of true Personality, that Jesus 
above all other characters in history de- 
serves to be called " The Great Person- 
ality," the One in whom Feeling and 
Thought and Will were bound to- 
314 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

gether in a splendid self-conscious 
unity, in which the self has become one 
with God. Most people will admit that 
Jesus stands out in history as " The 
Great Personality;" but we may ask, 
" Is He any more than a beautiful pic- 
ture, an impossible ideal, between whom 
and humanity there lies an impassable 
gulf? Have there ever been any others 
who have, in any sense, approached to 
His likeness? " If we could not find, 
elsewhere in history, other men and 
women who were walking the same way, 
and who were approaching to, or at 
least approximating the personality of 
Jesus, then it would be quite useless to 
spend time in painting the picture or 
holding up the impossible ideal, and all 
that has been said would but plunge us 
into hopeless discouragement. 

Take St. Francis of Assisi, who lived 
during the darkest period in mediaeval 
Italy. Here is the same type of Per- 
315 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

sonality that Jesus exhibited. A man 
who went everywhere unafraid, who felt 
himself one with nature and the God 
who was the Soul of nature, who 
preached great truths to thousands of 
listeners, and who was beloved by all 
because the one supreme motive of his 
life was good-will. Disinterested love, 
sympathy and kindliness flowed richly 
through his life. Certainly Francis of 
Assisi, the great Roman Catholic saint, 
stands out as one man who approxi- 
mated the Personality of Jesus. 

Or, take Henry Drummond, the 
Christian scientist. All who knew him 
and worked with him, including many 
of the greatest men in this country and 
Europe, bear the same witness: 
" Henry Drummond was the most 
Christ-like man I ever knew." His per- 
sonality approximated the Personality 
of Jesus. There was splendid control 
of feeling and intellect and will, and 
316 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

these were bound together not only in 
self-conscious unity, but a unity that 
had merged itself into the consciousness 
of God's life within. 

Or, take Phillips Brooks. Some of us 
may have heard him personally, but all 
have felt something of the secret of his 
wondrous influence. Can anybody 
question that the personality of Phillips 
Brooks approached the Personality of 
Jesus, or that God's own life dwelt 
most richly in him? 

But you say, " these were all relig- 
ious workers." Let us take another 
personality in a different field. Think 
of Abraham Lincoln. We have come 
to know his life even to its minutest de- 
tails. Think of the principles that actu- 
ated him. Think of his wealth of feel- 
ing, finding expression in love and 
good-will. Think of his splendid, inde- 
pendent, intuitional mind. Think of his 
wonderful control of will. Think of 
317 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the unity of his manhood and his con- 
sciousness of God within. More than 
once he said that he believed God was 
using him and working through him for 
the redemption of the black race. He 
was not a preacher of religion in the 
technical sense, but nevertheless, does 
not the personality of Lincoln approxi- 
mate the Personality of Jesus? If 
Jesus' Personality stood alone, and the 
general trend of the average human life 
in the normal unfolding of its powers 
was in some other direction, beyond 
question, He would soon cease to exert 
any vital influence in the world. We 
all instinctively feel that the greatest 
men and women are those who most 
nearly resemble Jesus; the men and 
women who have gained control of feel- 
ing, thought and will; the men and 
women through whom the spirit of 
good-will flows continually; the men 
and women who somehow feel that their 
318 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

little isolated self-consciousness is but 
part of the larger Universal Conscious- 
ness of God. The Personality of 
Jesus stands as the ideal for human per- 
sonality. It is the goal towards which 
all human life is unfolding and into 
which all spiritual natures are develop- 
ing. It is not somewhere mid-air be- 
tween heaven and earth, an ideal that 
leaves us hopeless and which we can 
never expect to realize, but in Jesus we 
see the ideal realized, and this helps us 
to know that, one day, we shall be like 
Him. 

There are two views of Jesus Christ 
that stand out in somewhat striking 
contrast. The older view, which has 
come down through the centuries, may 
be stated thus : Because of " the emer- 
gency " created in the world by Adam's 
sin, a plan was formed in the councils 
of God for the redemption of the world, 
and Christ volunteered to undertake the 
319 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

mission. He came from a far-away 
heaven and substituted His righteous- 
ness for the sinfulness of man, thereby 
paying the penalty for the broken law, 
satisfying the demands of God's justice 
and releasing man from punishment. 
Does it not sound to our ears dogmatic 
and mechanical in the extreme? The 
other view, which we call modern, also 
goes back, at least, to the author of 
John's Gospel. His conception of 
Jesus is quite different. In substance, 
he says: God has always been in the 
world; God has always been in human 
life, coming gradually to fuller and 
richer consciousness in main. God is 
the light, that lighteth every man that 
cometh into this world, only man has 
not known and recognized God in Him- 
self, even as he does not now. At last 
Jesus was born, and the life of God in 
Him was revealed still more fully, 
clearly and completely as His conscious- 
320 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

ness unfolded. As we read on in John's 
Gospel we find Jesus saying: " I am 
the way, the truth and the life," or as 
President Harper used to put it, " I am 
the way to Truth and Life." Jesus 
says nothing about satisfying the justice 
of God, or paying the penalty of 
broken law, least of all, of appeasing 
the wrath of God. He does not men- 
tion Adam's sin, or the " total deprav- 
ity " resulting from Adam's fall. Je- 
sus stands before men and affirms as 
clearly as could be put into words : You 
are children of God because you came 
forth from God, and His life is in every 
one of you. But you are not yet con- 
scious of the oneness of your life with 
God. The divine life slumbers in you, 
and I am come, and am living the true 
life of the awakened Son of God in 
order to show you the pathway to truth 
and life. What I am, you shall become, 
as you let the divine life in you unfold 
321 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 
more and more freely. Then shall your 
self-consciousness become God-con- 
sciousness. " And as the Father sent 
me, just so, send I you " — and 
" greater works than these shall ye do, 
because I go unto the Father." Surely 
Jesus taught that we could be like Him. 
Does not this conception of the au- 
thor of John's Gospel satisfj^ our 
minds to-day as the older conception of 
the theologians can no longer satisfy? 
The distinct contribution of Christian- 
ity to the other great World-Faiths, is 
the Personality of Jesus. The great 
fact is not, that Christianity has brought 
a new philosophy into the world, or 
that it has created new organizations, 
or given man a new system of ethics. 
The distinctly new thing that Chris- 
tianity has brought into the world is the 
Personality of Jesus. No other relig- 
ion has furnished a Personality that 
seems to fulfill so completely our ideal 
322 



THE GREAT PERSONALITY 

of the highest that is possible to human 
life. As the " Son of Man," He stands 
as the normal type of the possibilities of 
human nature in its gradual unfolding. 
As the " Son of God," He reveals the 
completion of human life in true Per- 
sonality, which is nothing less than the 
attainment of the Divine life that is one 
with the Father. 

" If Jesus Christ is a man, — 
And only a man, — I say 
That of all mankind I cleave to Him, 
And to Him will I cleave alway. 

" If Jesus is a God, — 
And the only God, — I swear 
I will follow Him through heaven and hell, 
The earth, the sea, and the air." 




THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

S there any scientific basis for 
the view we have expressed 
more than once, that our per- 
sonal self-consciousness is only 
a mere fragment of a larger and still 
more inclusive Consciousness? The an- 
swer to this question leads us into the 
realm of man's sub-conscious and super- 
conscious life. In perhaps no other 
branch of investigation has the New 
Psychology made such rapid strides as 
in this bringing into recognition of the 
vast area of the mind of man beyond 
the conscious field. We have only to 
compare the accepted ideas which are 
entertained on this subject by leading 
psychologists of to-day, with the ideas 
324 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

held by the psychologists of only a few 
decades back, to realize how rapid has 
been the advance in this particular field 
of inquiry. Leibnitz was the first great 
thinker of the western world to call at- 
tention to the fact of the extent and im- 
portance of the out-of-conscious mental 
planes. After Leibnitz's time, what- 
ever may have been the cause, the prog- 
ress of the idea was very slow, and it is 
only within the last twenty years that 
the text-books on psychology have 
given the subject the attention it de- 
served. To-day it is fully recognized 
by the best authorities. 

Many of us may be surprised at the 
following statements of some of the 
best authorities. Lewes says: " The 
teaching of most modern psychologists 
is that consciousness forms but a small 
item in the total of psychical processes." 
Hamilton says: "The sphere of our 
consciousness is only a small circle in a 
325 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

center of a far wider sphere of action 
and passion, of which we are only con- 
scious through its effects." Maudsley 
says: " Consciousness has not one-tenth 
part of the function which it is com- 
monly assumed to have in the ordinary 
mental operations of daily life. In 
every conscious state there are at work, 
conscious, sub-conscious and infra-con- 
scious energies, the last as indispensable 
as the first." Prof. Elmer T. Gates has 
said: " At least ninety per cent, of our 
mental life is sub-conscious." 

So that it has become a truism with 
psychologists that our personal self is 
at every moment wider than we know 
and larger than any manifestation of 
itself. " Our clear consciousness is al- 
ways a selection from an enormously 
wider stream of sub-conscious material 
for thought. The experiences of every 
life prove that the margins of the Self 
sweep out indefinitely beyond the hori- 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

zon which our consciousness illumines." 
We can truthfully say with Matthew 
Arnold : 

" Beneath the stream, shallow and light, of 

what we say we feel, 
Beneath the stream, as light, of what we think 

we feel, 
There flows with noiseless current, obscure and 

deep, 
The central stream of what we feel indeed." 

The ice-berg that lifts its peak of blue 
ice toward the sky carries with it an 
enormously greater mass of ice, eleven- 
twelfths of its total bulk, submerged 
beneath the surface. Beneath the lava 
that is thrown up from the volcano there 
is a molten core of earth which presses 
upwards from unexplored depths. 
Around the warm water of the Gulf 
Stream is a whole ocean of cold water 
which has no current of its own. In 
some such way our conscious life is sur- 

sn 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

rounded by a larger life, related to the 
Self, and yet lying below the margin 
of our primary consciousness. 

It has also been likened to the color 
band of the spectrum. Beyond the 
lower end with its red color and the 
upper end with its violet color, we know 
there are vibrations which give to our 
eyes no colors. At the red end the vi- 
brations are too slow, at the violet end, 
too rapid, for the retina of our eyes to 
translate them into colors. And yet we 
know the colors are there though we do 
not see them. So too we have come to 
see that there are mental phenomena 
beyond our conscious horizon, as un- 
mistakably as within this horizon. 
Around this limited field of our imme- 
diate consciousness there is a vast mar- 
gin or outer fringe that stretches away, 
no one can say how far, and that is in 
some sense vitally related to the con- 
scious Self. There are two ways in 
328 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

which we may study the phenomena of 
Man's sub-conscious life: (1) through 
the normal experiences of the average 
person; and (2) through what have 
been called the abnormal or super-nor- 
mal experiences of particular individ- 
uals. Let us consider, first, the normal 
experiences of every-day life. 

We all know that " every time we 
definitely perceive any object we are 
simply bringing this special object into 
the immediate field of consciousness, 
and that behind or beyond this object 
there is a vast range of other objects, 
dimly perceived, and yet not in our con- 
sciousness. In other words, we do not 
see all that we know is in our field of 
vision. In centering attention on one 
object, we apparently drive out of con- 
sciousness into this marginal region all 
other objects." Many objects or cir- 
cumstances, which do not come clearly 
into consciousness, make their influence 
329 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

felt, though their presence is not ac- 
knowledged. A cloudy sky or heavy 
atmosphere is present in the background 
of consciousness throughout the da3 r ; 
and though we may not once make the 
weather the subject of conversation or 
even the definite object of thought, it 
will contribute to our mood and become 
a real influence in all we do or think. 

The phenomena of crystal-gazing 
have thrown much light on this interest- 
ing field. There is nothing uncanny 
or especially mysterious about this ex- 
periment. Most of the pictures which 
the gazer sees in the crystal ball are ob- 
jects which were, or had been, in the 
field of vision, but had escaped notice or 
were too dim to attract attention. 

Professor Jones tells of an English 
lady who has had great success in ex- 
periments with crystal-gazing. On one 
occasion she saw in the crystal the pic- 
ture of a young girl, a well-known 
330 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

friend of hers, and she observed that the 
girl's hair which had always hung 
down her back was now put up in young 
lady fashion. The next day she met 
this girl, who reproached her for having 
passed her in the street without noticing 
her, particularly because she had put up 
her hair for the first time and wanted 
to call attention to it. The crystal- 
gazing simply brought into the immedi- 
ate foreground of consciousness the 
thing that this lady did see the day be- 
fore when passing her friend, but with- 
out sufficient force of attention to fix 
it at the time in her consciousness. 

On another occasion she saw in her 
crystal the words, " The Valley of Lil- 
lies," which was meaningless to her until 
afterwards, when she found a book with 
this title which some friend, unknown to 
her, had laid upon her table but too far 
distant from where she sat for her to 
see the words with her normal vision. 
331 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

This is only one way of proving that 
our eyes see more than our conscious 
minds take count of. 

The same is true of all the other 
senses. A thousand different noises 
reach our ears at the same time that we 
are listening to one particular sound. 
You have often been in a room filled 
with people, where there was the con- 
fused buzz of conversation. While 
talking to some particular person, and 
paying no attention to what was being 
said by the others, suddenly you have 
heard your own name pronounced 
clearly by some one at a distance. You 
have really been listening to all these 
sounds or you could not have distin- 
guished your own name; and if you 
were put into a hypnotic trance, you 
would be surprised to find how much of 
the conversation, to which you had ap- 
parently paid no attention, you would 
be able to repeat verbatim. 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

The sleeping mother beautifully il- 
lustrates the same phenomenon. She 
will sleep peacefully through the noises 
of the street, the wind howling outside, 
the rattling of the windows, and even 
the movements of persons about the 
house. But the moment her child, who 
may be sleeping even in another room, 
turns over, or sighs, or coughs, instantly 
the mother is aware of it. She is asleep 
to all other sounds and yet awake to her 
child. In order to distinguish between 
the other noises and the sounds made by 
her child she must be hearing them all. 
These other sounds simply do not be- 
come fixed in her consciousness. 

The wonderful power that odors pos- 
sess of bringing back with vividness the 
memories of the past has long been rec- 
ognized. Coming into a room perme- 
ated by the odor of certain flowers, the 
peculiar fragrance will suddenly call to 
mind scenes and faces and buried expe- 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

riences long since forgotten, a striking 
suggestion of the wider realm in which 
we all live, and yet, in which our con- 
scious life is only a tiny center. 

All organic functions of the body also 
depend upon this same sub-conscious 
life. The beating of the heart, over 
which we have no conscious control 
whatsoever and about which we never 
think, is controlled by our sub-conscious 
life. All the complex processes of the 
body, the circulation of the blood, the 
digestion and assimilation of food, even 
the respiratory process, depend upon 
this sub-conscious life. While we may 
control to a degree our breathing, check 
it for a little, breathe slower or faster, 
yet, by far the greater part of the work 
of respiration is performed sub-con- 
sciously. It is only when something 
goes wrong or some of the organs of the 
body become diseased, that the con- 
scious mind becomes aware that the in- 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

ternal organs are there. But remem- 
ber this, that in the course of evolution 
each of these automatic and involuntary 
movements and actions was learned by 
experience, and after being mastered by 
our earlier progenitors was then passed 
on to the region of the sub-conscious as 
race memories. The sub-consciousness 
is a hive of industry. It is filled with 
active, working faculties and mental 
machinery. 

There is no clearer illustration of the 
fact that our conscious life, at any mo- 
ment of time, is only a bubble in a 
larger sea of consciousness than in the 
phenomena of Memory. We ordinarily 
apply the word " memory " simply to 
those things we are able to recall. But 
in reality, there is practically no limit to 
what may be recalled. The sub-con- 
scious life has become the synonym for 
Memory in this larger sense. It is the 
great storehouse where all the experi- 
335 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ences of the past have been put away 
and from which, under certain condi- 
tions, everything in the past can be 
brought once again into the conscious 
life. The entire process of memory lies 
below consciousness. Every image 
which comes into thought comes by the 
law of Association. We pass from one 
topic of conversation to another, from 
one thought to a new one, by a connec- 
tion deeper than consciousness. Again 
and again we find ourselves asking, 
" How did I come to be thinking of 
this? " " It is as though some invisible 
being had carried us over from one peak 
of thought to another." 

The experience of hunting for a for- 
gotten name or a lost word is most in- 
teresting. We know perfectly well that 
the lost name is somewhere within the 
boundary of what we call ourself. But 
we know equally well that it is not in 
our present consciousness. It is a very 
336 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

curious way in which we go in search for 
it. " We are hunting for some definite 
thing which we know we know, but 
which at the same time we know we do 
not know now. The self of narrow 
horizon is appealing to the Self of wider 
horizon." In some submerged stratum 
of this very Self of ours, the name lurks 
and must be brought up. How do we 
set about the search? Not by directly 
centering our thought upon the lost 
name; but we begin to associate other 
ideas with it; we throw out, as it were, 
many different " feelers," trusting that 
one of these feelers will lead us in the 
right direction. If it is the name of a 
person, we try to think where we last 
met that person, how he looked or what 
he said. Or we remember the page on 
which we have seen the word written. 
Then, suddenly, as we follow these 
round-about paths, almost by magic the 
name leaps into consciousness. Not by 
337 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

direct demand but through the law of 
association, we are enabled to tap this 
reservoir of memory, to open the door 
to this storehouse of past experiences 
and find again that which apparently 
has gone from us forever. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes tells of an 
experience that came under his special 
attention, as follows: A loaned B sev- 
eral hundred dollars, and took his note 
for it. When the note came due, A 
hunted everywhere for the note but 
could not find it. He went to B and 
reminded him of the indebtedness, but 
B repudiated the loan, denied the note 
and charged A with fraudulent design, 
and so A had to stand the loss. Some 
years after, A was bathing in the 
Charles River when he was seized with 
cramp and nearly drowned. Immedi- 
ately after regaining his senses he hur- 
ried to his home, went into the library, 
opened a particular bookcase, took 
338 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

down a certain book from the shelf and 
from between its pages took the missing 
note. He told his friends afterwards 
that within those few moments when he 
felt life slipping from him forever, his 
whole past life rose before him and he 
saw himself as he stood on the day when 
he took the book from the shelf and 
placed the note for safe-keeping be- 
tween its pages. This is only one of 
many verified experiences, illustrating 
the fact that under certain conditions it 
is possible, through the law of associa- 
tion, to call up memories of the past 
and bring into the immediate fore- 
ground of conscious life, experiences 
which had apparently been lost forever. 
In the volitional realm of life, the or- 
dinary activities of every day, we are 
again reminded of how small a part is 
played by our conscious life as com- 
pared with the sub-conscious. The 
great mass of our activities have become 
339 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

habitual and now require of us no volun- 
tary attention. As you sit down at 
your desk, if you direct your conscious- 
ness toward the hand that guides the 
pen, your writing loses all its grace and 
easy flow and looks like the writing of 
a child. If you are a musician, and di- 
rect your conscious thought to the fin- 
gers that touch the keys or the strings, 
your playing becomes ridiculous. Cen- 
ter attention upon your movements at 
the social function or in public speaking, 
and you become an exhibition of awk- 
wardness. In the common experience 
of walking, if you become conscious of 
your limbs, note the steps you are ta- 
king, and the distance between your 
feet, you will soon find serious difficulty 
in moving at all. The piano-player, the 
operator of the typewriter or the sew- 
ing machine, the telegrapher, the type- 
setter, and all of us to a large degree, 
know that while at first we had to watch 
340 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

each step of our work and guard every 
motion, we have gradually become more 
expert until at last we are able to per- 
form our tasks with a minimum of at- 
tention, and often, while a portion of 
the mind is occupied in thinking of 
something entirely different. The sub- 
consciousness has taken over the task 
and performs it almost automatically. 
If men and women went about their 
daily tasks with conscious, voluntary ef- 
fort, the greater part of the world's 
work could never be done. We all pass 
from the stage of unconsciousness to 
conscious effort, and finally to activities 
performed sub-consciously. 

Herein lies the true philosophy of 
Habit. We are finally able to do habit- 
ually, with ease and readiness, the thing 
which at the outset we did laboriously 
and most imperfectly, because we turn 
the doing over to the " effortless 
custody " of the sub-conscious which 
341 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

guides the action swiftly and surely. 
Happy indeed is the man who in his 
higher moral nature learns how to apply 
the law of Habit. It may require ef- 
fort at first to be always truthful, al- 
ways pure, and cheerful, and sympa- 
thetic, but little by little the conscious 
effort disappears, until one finds that 
truthfulness, purity, cheerfulness, kind- 
ness and all the other virtues have for 
him become second nature; and hence- 
forth the sub-conscious life guides habit- 
ually to highest ends all the expressions 
of his manhood. 

The study of Genius also throws tre- 
mendous light on this question of the 
wider consciousness. The genius is the 
man who sees what the ordinary eyes 
do not see; he hears what the ordinary 
ears do not hear ; he feels what the ordi- 
nary life does not feel. He is more than 
ordinarily acute, impressionable, re- 
sponsive and absorbent. His conscious 
342 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

life seems to impinge very closely on the 
sub-conscious life. The wall between 
the conscious and the sub-conscious in 
him, is extremely thin. " He is a per- 
son with extraordinary power of appro- 
priating the sub-conscious material. All 
he has is at his service, while the rest 
of us feel that we too have something 
of distinction if we only knew how to 
get at it." In his highest moments of 
creative activity, whether in writing 
poetry, or painting pictures, or carving 
statues, or conceiving inventions, or 
producing the great play or novel, — 
whatever form his creative activity may 
take, — we find, on his own statement, 
that there are uprushes from below, in- 
spirations from above, invasions from 
regions beyond the ordinary self. At 
such times he works without effort, 
scarcely realizing that he is taking time 
to think out thoughts, or frame sen- 
tences, or put colors together on his can- 
343 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

vas. It is as if the gates of his self-hood 
were, for the time being, thrown wide 
open and a great flood of thought and 
feeling and beauty were rushing in 
upon him. These inrushes seem to 
bring something deeper, something 
more universally and permanently 
worthful than are the products of vol- 
untary thought. This is the experience 
of all genius in its highest moments of 
activity. What does it mean if not this : 
" That the Self that thinks, is the highly 
active center of a much wider life, which 
under certain conditions, crowds its con- 
tributions upon the thinking Self? So 
that the genius is right in thinking that 
he receives what he uses. There is no 
explanation for such persons, unless we 
recognize that they have a spiritual uni- 
verse for their environment and with 
which they co-operate." 

All of us, whether we belong in the 
class of geniuses or not, know to some 
344 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

degree the meaning of such experiences. 
There are times when you take up your 
task with a feeling that nothing can 
thwart your purpose, with a sense of 
confidence that is the guarantee of suc- 
cess. There are days when you work 
with ease, efficiency and rapidity, when 
you are able to discharge your task with 
the minimum of effort. Then there are 
other days when everything is laborious 
and you search in vain for the solution 
of your problem, until you wonder 
where your powers of mind and will 
have vanished. There are times in all 
our lives when we seem to be able to co- 
operate with, or bring ourselves into a 
finer atunement or harmony with the 
great spiritual forces about us and 
within us. These are the moments 
when we do our best work, when we 
attain the greatest heights of character, 
when we catch the visions of Truth, 
when we really discover the solution to 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

life's deeper problems. The case of the 
genius is more clear and striking, but 
these experiences common to every life, 
in some degree, certainly suggest the 
thought that we are all living our lives 
in a larger Self, that we are all sur- 
rounded by an environment of life and 
beauty and truth, that some of us seem 
to be able to draw on this larger Life 
for power and inspiration, but that all 
of us at times, become conscious of our 
vital relation to the wider consciousness 
in which we live. 

Dreams also open for us a door into 
the sub-conscious. Since man began to 
dream he has believed that the dream 
stuff came from beyond himself. Now 
he got messages from distant friends, 
now from dead ancestors, and now 
from his god. Even yet there are many 
who hold that genuine communications 
come in dreams. Whether this be true, 
we know that dreams bring to us much 
346 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

that in waking life had no part in our 
conscious experience. " Many of our 
dreams take their rise from bodily stim- 
uli, which in waking life are ignored 
and which are too faint to wake us from 
sleep. The sensation may come from a 
faint noise in the room, or from the con- 
dition of some internal organ, or from 
a cramped position in bed. Given the 
simple sense-fact, the mind has to ac- 
count for it, and quick as a flash it in- 
vents the pictorial story. In the train 
of hallucinations which makes up the 
imagery of dreams, almost any fact of 
experience from the time of birth may 
figure." Almost every dream bears 
witness to a vast subliminal realm 
which, though ours, is scarcely " us." 

The phenomena of Hypnotism fur- 
nish a most fruitful means for explor- 
ing the sub-conscious realm. While 
usually classed under abnormal types it 
is, strictly speaking, perfectly normal. 
347 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Hypnosis is simply an artificially in- 
duced, sleep-like condition of both mind 
and body, during which the subject is 
extremely responsive to suggestions of 
all kinds. We are all familiar with il- 
lustrations of hypnotism. During the 
trance condition the normal conscious- 
ness of the subject no longer guides 
action. Tell a hypnotized man that he 
is George Washington, and immedi- 
ately he personifies the Father of his 
Country. All that he knows of Wash- 
ington will come to his service and he 
will play the part as well as his previous 
training will allow. It is wonderful 
how under hypnotic influence the mind 
is able to get control of the organic 
processes of the body. Tell him that 
ammonia is a perfume and he will in- 
hale it with seeming pleasure. Put a 
postage stamp on the back of the hand 
and tell him it is a fly-blister and the 
blister appears. Suggest that his nose 
348 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

is bleeding and blood may come from it. 
Tell him that he will not feel the ampu- 
tation of his arm and he does not feel it. 
Many cases of surgery have recently 
been accomplished with wonderful suc- 
cess, under hypnotic influence. All ex- 
periments in Hypnotism serve to 
strengthen the conviction that our self- 
consciousness is only a fragment in a 
vast ocean of consciousness. The im- 
pulse to perform the suggestion made, 
seems to rush up from below and invade 
the normal waking consciousness. 

Another abnormal type which is rec- 
ognized by psychology, is the disease to 
which we give the generic name Hys- 
teria. Here we have startling revela- 
tions of the subterranean depths of Con- 
sciousness. It is assuredly a disease 
and generally tends towards disorgani- 
zation of personality, but even so, it re- 
veals the fact that the territory of the 
Self is deeper and wider than common 
349 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

experience or even psychology had 
formerly allowed. The hysteric who 
seems only a shattered wreck will often 
manifest almost unbelievable power and 
acuteness of perception, and control 
over organic processes. 

Or, there are the strange cases of dual 
personality, such as the story told by 
Prof. Wm. James of the minister in a 
certain New England town who went 
to the bank one day, drew out five 
hundred dollars, boarded the train, and 
that was the last he remembered. Six 
months afterwards he came to con- 
sciousness — that is, to his conscious- 
ness as a minister — in a little town in 
Pennsylvania and found himself the 
proprietor of a successful drug store. 
No one can say, as yet, all that such 
cases of double personality may signify. 
It only makes us feel that there are 
mysteries in this thing we call human 
consciousness that have not yet been 
350 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

explained, and that the human con- 
sciousness is greater and more wonder- 
ful than we know. 

As a result of its investigations in 
this most interesting field of man's sub- 
conscious life, what is the clear conclu- 
sion of modern Psychology? Simply 
this: That every form of sub-conscious 
activity gives hints that no circle can be 
drawn to mark the limits or the bound- 
aries of the self. This is the latest con- 
clusion of Science. But we have not 
considered these illustrations simply 
because of their psychological interest, 
or because they contain much that is 
wonderful and mysterious; but rather, 
because of their implications as to the 
greatness of human life and its real and 
vital relation to the Infinite Life of 
God. The question asked at the begin- 
ning, " Is there any scientific basis for 
the view that our personal self-concious- 
ness is but a mere fragment of a larger 
351 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

and more inclusive consciousness?" 
finds its conclusive answer in the dis- 
closures of modern psychology. All 
the facts of the sub-conscious life point 
in one direction. Every conscious life 
is a highly active center of a larger Con- 
sciousness, whose limits no science can 
determine. 

Will you recall for the moment, our 
modern conception of God? To our 
thinking He is not a Being dwelling 
afar in the Heavens, localized some- 
where in Infinite space. God is the 
Soul of the universe even as you are the 
soul of your body. The universe is 
God's body, and He Himself, is its 
Soul. Try to get clearly in mind this 
conception of the immanency of God. 
He is the Life of all life, the Reality 
behind all appearances, the Power that 
creates and sustains everything that ex- 
ists. There is no place where God is 
not, for He is the Infinite Mind, the 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

Infinite Heart, the Infinite Will, the 
Universal Consciousness of the Whole. 
And then remember, that this same God 
who is immanent throughout the uni- 
verse must also be immanent in every 
human life. God sleeping in the atom, 
partially awakening to consciousness in 
the plant, more fully conscious in the 
animal, most of all conscious in man. 
Remember that this is not only the 
teaching of modern philosophy but the 
teaching of the Bible as well. " God 
has not left Himself without a witness 
among any people." " The light that 
lighteth every man coming into the 
world." All men are " the children of 
God," as Jesus loved to put it. If this 
means anything, it must mean that 
God's own life has been imparted to us 
and that we possess in ourselves, in our 
essential natures, that which is a very 
part of God, the divine life itself. 
With this thought of God in our 
353 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

minds, what does it mean when Science 
states that the Self that dwells within 
is unlimited, and that human conscious- 
ness seems to be a highly developed 
center of activity in a vast ocean of 
consciousness? Let me quote for you 
the words of scientific men as suggest- 
ing what this deeper knowledge of the 
Self means to them. Oliver Wendell 
Holmes wrote, many years ago, in his 
" Mechanism of Thought and Mor- 
als ": " Our definite ideas are stepping 
stones; how we get from one to the 
other we do not know; something car- 
ries us; we (i.e. our conscious selves) 
do not take the step. A creating and 
informing spirit which is with us, and 
not of us, is recognized everywhere in 
real and in storied life. It comes to the 
least of us as a voice that will be heard ; 
it tells us what we must believe; it 
frames our sentences; it lends a sudden 
gleam of sense or eloquence to the dull- 
354 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

est of us all; we wonder at ourselves, 
or rather not at ourselves, but at this 
divine visitor, who chooses our con- 
sciousness as his dwelling place, and in- 
vests our naked thought with the purple 
of the kings of speech and song." 

Listen to William James, one of the 
foremost psychologists of our age, 
" There is actually and literally more 
life in our total soul, than we are at any 
time aware of. The conscious person 
is continuous with a wider Self." 

Listen once again to Sir Oliver 
Lodge, one of the leading physicists of 
our day. " No science maintains that 
the whole of our personality is incarnate 
here and now. It is beginning to sur- 
mise the contrary, and to suspect the 
existence of a larger transcendental 
Personality, with which men of genius 
are in vital touch more than ordinary 
men. We may all be partial incarna- 
tions of a larger Self." 
355 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Science and Religion are at last 
clasping hands. The profoundest 
truth about human life is growing clear. 
Our lives in the limited consciousness 
we call our own, really rest upon the 
bosom of the Universal Consciousness 
of God. Does it not help to bring Him 
more near, to make His life more real, 
and to make our relation to God more 
actual and vital? Does it not help us 
to understand how men of old, as well 
as men of to-day, are inspired of God, 
and how revelations of His truth have 
come and are constantly coming to open 
and responsive minds everywhere? 
Does it not help us understand that 
great personality, the Jesus Christ of 
history, as One in whom the God-con- 
sciousness had unfolded, even as it 
waits to unfold in us in ever richer and 
fuller degree? What wondrous incen- 
tives and glorious inspirations come to 
us in this conception of our lives! For 
356 



THE SUB - CONSCIOUS LIFE 

God is not far from every one of us. 
Nay! He is in us, the very life of our 
lives. Our human consciousness is an 
actual part of God's consciousness; it 
rests upon God, it proceeds from God, 
it is God, incarnate in us. 

Some such thought must have been in 
the mind of the Apostle when he said, 
" For in Him we live, and move, and 
have our being." I do not suppose that 
Paul knew anything about the newer 
psychology as such, I only know that 
when he uttered these words nineteen 
hundred years ago, he gave prophetic 
expression to the profoundest truth 
about human life, a truth with which 
our most modern thought is in fullest 
agreement. 



357 




THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

O WARDS the close of his life, 
Tennyson said to a friend: 
" My chief desire is to have a 
new vision of God." In these 
words the great poet has voiced the 
deepest desire of all serious men and 
women. If we are ever to regain the 
lost sense of God, which Tolstoi says is 
the great need of our Age, it will only 
be as, in some way, we catch a fresh 
vision of God. What is the Ultimate 
Reality? How shall we define the Ab- 
solute? Who is God? All other human 
questionings at last gather themselves 
up in this supreme question. There 
are, ultimately, but two ways of ap- 
proach to the character of the Infinite 
358 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

— through nature and through man. 
These are not two opposite pathways 
for the simple reason that man is a p ai ■'. 
of nature. They rather stand to each 
other as higher and lower, and they 
speak a different, though not a conflict- 
ing word concerning the mystery that is 
within them and behind them. Some 
years ago, John Fiske published his in- 
teresting book entitled " Through Na- 
ture to God." For many of us it put 
new meaning into the idea of God in 
relation to Nature. The Doctrine of 
Evolution has indeed brought a new 
vision of God and we shall never cease 
to be grateful to Mr. Fiske for making 
so indubitably clear the immanency of 
God in His Universe. But that little 
book did not answer the most pressing 
question as to the character of God. 
The path that leads us closest to God 
is not through Nature, but through 
human nature, not through the lower 
359 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

expression of the creative Power, but 
through man, its highest expression. 

We know that our finite lives are 
bounded by the Infinite, as some island 
might know itself bounded by the shore- 
less sea. We know that we live our 
lives in the infinite, as this planet might 
know itself as living in the infinite 
stretches of space. We have seen that 
our individual consciousness is but a 
fragment of a larger and still more in- 
clusive consciousness, a highly devel- 
oped center in the great ocean of the 
Universal Consciousness. All men ad- 
mit the fact of an Ultimate Reality. 
They may call it God, or First Cause, 
or Force, or The Absolute, or The Infi- 
nite, but regardless of the name we use, 
the fact remains the same. But we are 
not content with the bare fact. We 
long to be able to reach and read, at 
least in part, the character of the Eter- 
nal. We study all things, all forms of 
360 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

life, and we see in them all, the expres- 
sion of the Eternal. But we see in man 
the highest expression. Shall we con- 
strue the character of the Eternal by 
what is lowest or by what is highest, by 
the beast of prey or by the prophet of 
love, by cosmic hostilities to man or by 
the human heart, by the mystery of 
pain and death or by the devotion and 
joy of self-sacrifice, by what is darkest 
or by what is most luminous? If we 
read God's character in the light of the 
lowest order of life and the mysteries 
yet unsolved, then we have nothing in 
Him to account for man; if we read 
God wholly by the highest order of life, 
we fail to reconcile the seeming cruel- 
ties with His character. But in the lat- 
ter case we have an explanation for 
man, and future light may make plain 
the remaining dark places of existence. 
The greatest thing that we know is 
man ; the greatest man we know is 
361 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Jesus Christ; and the secret of the 
greatness of Jesus is in His personality. 
When, therefore, we hear Him say, 
" He that hath seen Me hath seen the 
Father," have we a real clue to the 
heart of the Eternal? Does the Person- 
ality of Jesus give us any definite 
guide to an Infinite Personality? 
These words are usually employed to 
prove the divinity of Jesus Christ, but 
may we not rightly use them to indicate 
the humanity of God? This is not to 
create God in man's image, but it is to 
realize that man is created in God's im- 
age, and that therefore man, at his high- 
est and best, must give us some genuine 
clue to the character of the Infinite. 
There is no place for dogmatism in 
dealing with the subject of God. We 
are but humble seekers after truth, and 
as finite beings, we realize at the outset 
that we must be agnostics about very 
much that belongs to the mystery of 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

the Infinite. But is there any sense in 
which we can approach God, and learn 
aught about His character? Do these 
words of Jesus furnish any real basis 
for the idea of the Personality of God? 

We have tried to show that the ulti- 
mate goal of human development is the 
complete Personality. We have seen 
that Jesus stands out in history as the 
highest type of human life, because in 
Him, Personality is seen in its sym- 
metry and fullness. Can we, looking 
through the Personality of Jesus, be- 
come assured of an Infinite Personal- 
ity? Is there any basis in " the nature 
of things," in the scientific concep- 
tion of the Universe, to justify the 
affirmation of Religion, that God is a 
Person? 

At the outset, as we look forth into 

the Universe and reflect upon what we 

see, we find that the Ultimate Reality 

is the Great Thinker. If this seems too 

363 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

bold a statement, let us consider the al- 
ternative. The Universe has either 
been thought through, or it has not. If 
it has not, then there is nothing to give 
it meaning and consistency. But it has 
meaning and consistency and we are 
constantly gaining fresh evidence that 
the Universe is permeated throughout 
by mind. God is the great Thinker. 
His thinking must differ from ours in 
method, but it is the same in kind, or 
else we could not read in any sense the 
meaning of the Universe. 

Suppose no evidence of Mind is mani- 
fest in the universe, then there would 
be no Science. We should find our- 
selves in a world in which science is ab- 
normal; a world that does not yield 
itself to science, or offer any material 
for it, in which there is nothing to make 
science of. For science implies that 
there is some mind other than myself 
that has expressed itself in the things 
364 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

I observe, and expressed through them 
meanings that can be apprehended by 
my mind. " Science implies two minds 
— one weaving intellectual conceptions 
into the web of existence, and the other 
studying out the figure that has been 
inwoven; two intellects, one producing 
what the other can read and understand, 
and the other understanding what the 
first has produced." The basic assump- 
tion of all science is that everything in 
the universe has meaning, that the hu- 
man mind can investigate and interpret 
that meaning. But meaning always 
implies mind. No Astronomer would 
ever turn his telescope towards the 
heavens, no Biologist would ever spend 
a moment in his Laboratory, no Geolo- 
gist would ever delve in the rocks, if he 
did not believe that this universe in 
which we live is an intelligible universe. 
But an intelligible universe must be the 
product of intelligence. It is clear that 
365 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

nothing but a mind can apprehend and 
appreciate the expressions of a mind. 
But it is equally true that a mind can 
apprehend and find meaning only in 
that which is the expression of a. mind 
of its own nature and kindred. Ra- 
tional powers can only apprehend ra- 
tional expressions. Every fact in the 
outer world whose meaning we know, 
every generalization from such facts, 
every formulation of scientific law, — 
the law of gravitation, the law of 
cause and effect, the law of evolution, 
etc., — all our great body of scientific 
knowledge in accordance with which we 
live our lives every day, goes back to 
the fundamental principle that this is an 
intelligible universe, and if intelligible, 
then permeated throughout with intelli- 
gence. So that Kepler was literally 
correct when he said, " Oh! God, I am 
thinking Thy thoughts after Thee." A 
world in which Science is impossible 
S66 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

would be an unthinkable world. But 
the only world in which Science is pos- 
sible, is a world of mind. 

But this is not all. If there is no 
mind in the universe, if the Ultimate 
Reality is not the Great Thinker, then 
human thought is the highest thought, 
and human knowledge the completest 
knowledge that exists. Think for a 
moment what this statement implies. 
Nothing more than men know has ever 
been known anywhere. We know how 
to think to a degree, we are able to fol- 
low mental processes and reach certain 
conclusions, we can read books, we can 
investigate phenomena, we are able to 
make discoveries in a limited field, each 
for himself. We also know that all 
about us to-day and throughout all past 
centuries, there are and have been 
countless other men and women pos- 
sessed of these same mental powers who 
have done similar thinking in their 
367 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

limited fields. But if there is no Great 
Thinker, then your thought and mine, 
similar to the thought of all other 
human minds, stands forth as the high- 
est type of thought in existence. Many 
minds have gone further in their range 
of thinking, have been able to amass a 
larger number of facts, have succeeded 
in solving more of the problems of life 
than have we, and yet, the knowledge 
attained by the greatest mind, nay, all 
the knowledge possessed by all human 
minds, represents the completest knowl- 
edge that there is. I would in no sense 
disparage the wondrous powers of the 
human mind or in any wise belittle the 
splendid body of knowledge to which it 
has attained, but every intelligent man 
knows that all the truths and knowledge 
we possess, as compared with the sum- 
total of Truth and the Universal knowl- 
edge, is but pitiable ignorance. The 
human mind is at the summit, if there 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

is no Great Thinker. Then there is no 
all-embracing mind, no well-balanced 
understanding, no comprehensive 
knowledge, no knowledge higher or 
larger than that human ignorance of 
which we are so profoundly conscious. 
Nothing broader than our narrowness, 
nothing deeper than our shallowness! 
It is inconceivable. 

But there is a still deeper question. 
If there is no Great Thinker, how can 
I trust my mental powers? What va- 
lidity have my mental processes and how 
do I know that my conclusions are true ? 
The trouble with trusting my mental 
powers in a world where there is no 
Great Thinker, is this: My mental 
powers stand alone. The powers of all 
other human minds are just like mine, 
and I have nothing with which to com- 
pare my powers except others of the 
same order. " If there is about me a 
world of order, off-spring of an intelli- 
369 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

gent mind, with its far-reaching illus- 
tration of intellectual operations, such a 
world would serve as a support to my 
intelligence, a confirmation of my in- 
stinctive confidence in my own thinking, 
and a proof of the validity of my normal 
intellectual powers and processes. If 
there were a larger mind than mine put- 
ting forth similar activity, doing in the 
large what I do in the small, giving 
evidence that it possessed in full, what 
I possess in rudiments, clearly such a 
mind would stand in comparison with 
mine and I could learn to estimate the 
value of my own processes in the light 
of larger processes." But if my mind 
in its operations is not tested and sup- 
ported by a larger mind, present in 
" the nature of things," how do I know 
that this whole method of activity that 
I call rational, is not a mere passing 
freak of life, as transient and unimpor- 
tant as it is solitary and unsupported? 
370 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

My powers may in every thought be 
misleading me. I can never be sure that 
I have arrived at truth. I can never 
hope to solve with certainty any prob- 
lem. 

Simply to indicate, as we have done, 
what would be involved in the concep- 
tion of a mindless world, is to send us 
back with unspeakable joy to the good 
old world of science with its warm and 
fruitful soil of intelligibility, bearing 
witness to the rich subsoil of mind. The 
one great fact that modern science has 
taught us is, that the universe is infi- 
nitely richer in meaning than we had 
ever imagined. Materialism as the phi- 
losophy of existence is dead and gone. 
Brute force and dead matter are no 
longer mentioned. The tendency of 
our best science and philosophy to-day 
is all toward the conception of Pan- 
psychism — a psychical universe, in 
which every physical process is always 
371 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

accompanied by its corresponding psy- 
chical process. Meaning is everywhere. 
But meaning and mind are inseparable. 
Thought is the product of a thinker. A 
Universe impressed throughout with in- 
telligible meanings is nothing less than 
the work of an Infinite Mind. The tiny 
cell, the unit of all organisms, is an em- 
bodied bit of mind. Professor Gates 
says, " In short, the life of a cell must 
consist of its mental activities. What 
has hitherto been called the vital or 
physiological processes are in reality 
psychological processes, and the life of 
a cell is nothing more than its mind." 
We are living in "an honest world," in 
a universe that does not delude us nor 
leave our mental powers unsupported 
and unconfirmed. The whole order of 
things amid which we stand is not false, 
but true and trustworthy. And Mar- 
tineau, the great spiritual seer, is quite 
in accord with modern science when he 
372 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

says, " The Universe which includes 
and enfolds us round is the life dwelling 
of an Eternal Mind." We are justified 
then in affirming that the Ultimate 
Reality, or God, is the Great Thinker, 
or the Infinite Mind. 

If the Universe reveals God as the 
Great Thinker there is good reason for 
taking the next step and affirming also 
that He is the Great Wilier. This must 
be true because we know nothing about 
thinkers that are not also willers. Psy- 
chologically, we have come to see how 
every thought must inevitably translate 
itself into some action. We know that 
the mental life of the primary cell, for 
example, is inevitably manifested in the 
activities of that cell. Thought, so far 
as we know anything about it, is always 
accompanied by volition. Wherever 
we turn in nature we find ourselves in 
the presence of force, energy and 
power. Many have been willing to 
373 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

stop here. They trace all phenomena 
back to what they call Ultimate Force, 
and then have said, " Beyond this we 
cannot go." But what is the source of 
the Force, the Energy and Power man- 
ifested everywhere in the universe ? The 
Universe, physical and psychical, is an 
orderly system which we have found to 
be expressive of an Infinite Mind ; what 
else can be so probable as that the Mind 
willed the system? How else shall we 
think of the energy and force of the uni- 
verse, if not, that all exertion or exer- 
cise of energy in all forms whatever, 
proceeds through the direct and contin- 
uous action of the will of the immanent 
God; so that the sum-total of force 
throughout the Universe is simply 
God's energy put forth in incessant ac- 
tivity in obedience to His Will? It is 
not necessary to theorize in detail about 
God's Willing. There are mysteries 
here that the human mind cannot 
374 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

fathom, but the overwhelming proba- 
bility is, that the mind that thought the 
system willed it. Or else, we face the 
unknown alternative of a mind without 
volition. 

It is also true that purpose implies 
volition as well as mind; mind to con- 
ceive, and volition to execute the pur- 
pose. The old argument from Design 
is no longer as effective as it used to be. 
Paley's simile of the watch has given 
place to the simile of the flower. The 
universe is not a machine which God 
made as the mechanic makes a watch. 
It is a living organism w T hich has grown, 
even as the flower grows. The skillful 
adjustment of details in which, for- 
merly, men saw the purposed design of 
the Great worker, has well-nigh been 
forgotten in the presence of that stu- 
pendous purpose, which " through all 
the ages rolls," as revealed in the 
mighty evolutionary process. From 
375 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the beginning the movement is appar- 
ent, as life evolves ever from the lower 
to the higher, from the simple to the 
more complex, from the physical to the 
psychical, from the material to the 
spiritual. The region in which the Infi- 
nite executes His purposes has been 
vastly enlarged by modern thought, but 
the master minds in both science and 
philosophy are showing more and more 
clearly, that the theory of Evolution 
demands for its completion nothing less 
than an Infinite Mind to conceive, and 
an Infinite Will to execute the Uni- 
versal Evolutionary Scheme. 

Let us take the next step and affirm 
that God is not only the Great Thinker, 
and the Great Wilier, but also the 
Great Lover. I use the word " love " 
because it best expresses all that we 
mean by " Goodness." The highest 
expression of man's emotional or affec- 
tional nature is in the goodness that 
376 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

proceeds from disinterested love. Have 
we any right to claim that the Ultimate 
Reality is good, that God is the Great 
Lover? There may be many who are 
willing to admit our first two conten- 
tions, that God is the Great Thinker 
and the Great Wilier, but who hesitate 
to affirm this last, that He is likewise 
the Great Lover. Let us see what is 
involved in the alternative once again. 
Suppose God is not good, then what 
follows? In the first place, there is no 
possible basis for any Religion. There 
might be religions, for there is no tell- 
ing what follies man might not commit ; 
but they would have no right to exist. 
Religion would be abnormal in such a 
world. What is the essence of religion? 
It is reverence, it is trust, it is love for 
God, and to reverence or trust or love 
a Being who is not good, would not 
only be degrading to the individual, but 
would be immoral and wicked in the 
377 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

extreme. If religions did spring up, it 
would be the duty of every honest man 
to do his utmost to destroy them. This 
would apply not only to the lower 
forms of religion in which superstition 
runs riot, it would apply equally well 
to the highest form of religion that we 
know anything about, for it would be 
fundamentally wrong for men to look 
up and worship if there were not some 
One worthy to be looked up to; and 
man would be false to himself until he 
had shaken off the whole system and 
idea of religion, whether in its lowest 
form or in its highest. A world with- 
out God as Mind, is a world in which 
Science is impossible. A world without 
God as Goodness, is a world in which 
Religion, in any form, is likewise im- 
possible. Humanity would not be 
adapted to religion, nor religion to 
humanity. All religion would be a 
hideous mistake in such a world. 
378 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

But whence sprang our religions? 
Not from the sky, nor from Bibles, nor 
from churches, but from man. Religion 
existed long before the first sentence of 
the Bible was penned, or the first priest 
ordained, or the first church conse- 
crated. It depends on none of these, 
although it uses all of them. Religion 
is as old as man. It grew out of human 
experience, with its hopes and fears, its 
joys and sorrows, its spiritual hunger 
and thirst, its longings and aspirations. 
Even in the early twilight days of 
primitive man, we find him reaching 
out dumb hands towards the Infinite; 
and beneath all that is crude and super- 
stitious and even degrading in the early 
forms of religion, we discern the same 
impulse Godward that characterizes 
religion in its higher forms. So that 
if God is not good and worthy of 
Man's worship, we are forced to con- 
clude that all man's higher life, as we 
379 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

have called it, is only a bitter mockery, 
that the aspirations which have ennobled 
man through the centuries have merely 
been a fruitless dream, the longing after 
the goodness of God has been only a 
futile search, the instinctive turning to 
the God of comfort in the hour of 
trouble or sorrow has been a vain and 
useless act, and the fancied help re- 
ceived, only a base deception. All the 
deepest instincts of the human heart 
that lead man to pray, to aspire to a 
divine fellowship, to cry out after 
righteousness, to look for manifesta- 
tions of divine goodness in his own soul 
or in the lives of his fellows — all that 
makes up man's moral and spiritual 
nature — finds no response in the Infi- 
nite and has no reality in fact. All that 
the world has recognized as highest 
and best, and which has furnished the 
chief inspiration in guiding humanity 
forward along lines of truest progress 
380 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

is without foundation. But this is not 
all. If the Ultimate Reality is not 
good, if we cannot predicate Love of 
the Infinite, then it follows that man's 
goodness, the goodness of the human 
heart, makes man a nobler being than 
God. As we look about us, we know 
that such a thing as goodness exists; 
we know that purity and unselfishness 
and honesty and fidelity and patience 
and loyalty to duty are realities in 
human lives. We see these virtues 
being expressed on every side; we 
know that multitudes of men and 
women are daily forgetting themselves 
and making great sacrifices for the sake 
of a pure and unselfish love; we know 
that the brightest spots in human his- 
tory are those places where men and 
women have put aside their own inter- 
ests for the sake of some great prin- 
ciple, some mighty truth, some won- 
drous cause. If the Ultimate Reality 
381 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

is not good, if God is not the Great 
Lover, then men and women are 
greater in character than God. In 
spite of all its imperfections and weak- 
nesses and inconsistencies, human na- 
ture has reached greater heights of 
character than God. It is simply un- 
thinkable. 

There is one other thing involved in 
the alternative, that God is not good. 
It follows, then, that Man's goodness 
stands alone, untested and unsupported 
by any larger Goodness outside of him- 
self. Why should we strive against 
temptations to impurity, or dishonesty, 
or selfishness? If in "the nature of 
things " there are no eternal principles 
of righteousness, why should we reach 
up toward the high ideals and cling to 
them in spite of all discouraging fail- 
ures? Why, when we fail to-day, do 
we strive again to-morrow, and failing 
then, continue through all our lives the 
382 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

striving to reach the heights of sym- 
metrical manhood and womanhood? 
Simply because we instinctively believe 
that in the universe about us there is 
the counterpart of these great ideals 
that emerge within us ; that Righteous- 
ness, and Truth and Goodness and 
Love are Eternal principles, rooted 
and grounded in the Ultimate Reality; 
and so we seek to bring our lives into 
ever closer harmony with these eternal 
principles. But if we are mistaken, if 
our moral instincts deceive us, if the 
Ultimate Reality is not good, then 
there is no real basis for morality, no 
reason why we should struggle and 
strive toward the unattainable, which 
voices itself in us as the ideal but which 
finds no response in the universe and no 
support in the character of the Infinite. 
If God is not good, we cannot be sure 
of anything, and our own inner lives 
become chaotic and meaningless. 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Alfred Russell Wallace, in his inter- 
esting book, " The Wonderful Cen- 
tury," shows how science is gradually 
explaining many things that have 
hitherto been filled with mystery. 
He says that quite recently it has been 
proved that the white corpuscles of the 
blood whose function was previously 
unknown, are really independent living 
organisms produced in large numbers 
by the spleen. Their mission is life- 
saving, viz.: to devour and destroy the 
bacteria or germs of disease which may 
gain an entrance to the blood or tissues, 
and which, when their increase is un- 
checked, produce various disorders and 
often death. He also points out that 
many of the bacteria formerly re- 
garded as hostile to life, also have as 
their function the tearing down of 
dead or dying organisms in the body, 
and thus prepare the raw material out 
of which new organisms may be grown. 
384 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

This simply suggests the fact, that 
the further we go in our scientific in- 
vestigations and the nearer we come to 
the full disclosure of all the facts, the 
more we shall come to see that there is 
beneficence as well as wisdom, goodness 
as well as will at the heart of all myster- 
ies. In our personal lives we take the 
single experience, or think of our lives 
as separate and apart from all other 
lives, and we say Life is cruel, Life is 
bitter and hard, God cannot be good 
to allow such experiences. But the 
thoughtful person, the really broad- 
minded man, looks at the single expe- 
rience in connection with all the other 
experiences, and seeks to think of his 
life in relation with all other human 
lives, before he makes up his mind as 
to the goodness of God. If this be our 
attitude toward Life, sooner or later 
we come to see how, in the long run, the 
great processes that go on in the world 
385 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

about us and within us, are beneficent 
and kind, the manifestations of an Infi- 
nite goodness and love. 

We have made three statements 
about the Ultimate Reality, or God. 
He is the Great Thinker, the Great 
Wilier, the Great Lover. Can we still 
go a step further and say that these 
three, Infinite Mind, Infinite Heart 
and Infinite Will are bound together 
in conscious Unity? In casting about 
for some proof of this last statement, I 
confess I find none, save simply this, 
that it is utterly impossible to conceive 
of Mind, Heart and Will, except as 
bound together in conscious unity. We 
cannot think of Mind apart from Feel- 
ing and Will ; we cannot think of Will 
apart from Feeling and Intelligence; 
we cannot think of Feeling apart from 
Intelligence and Will. Nowhere in life 
do we find Feeling existing alone. No- 
where in the world do we find Will- 
386 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

power existing in isolation. So far 
as we know anything about them, 
Thought, Feeling and Will are always 
bound together in conscious unity. It 
is impossible to think of them, except 
as bound together in unity. Not to 
think of them in this way, would also 
be rank disloyalty to that axiomatic 
modern idea, the idea of Unity. If 
modern science has convinced us of 
anything it is that we are living in a 
Universe, where law and order and 
unity prevail from center to circumfer- 
ence. If there were not unity here, we 
should be living in a Chaos. We are 
compelled by the laws of thought as 
well as by the disclosures of science to 
think of the Infinite Mind, Heart, and 
Will in terms of Unity. 

So we see to what conclusion this 

practical train of reasoning has led us: 

we find that the Ultimate Reality, or 

God, must be Infinite Mind, Infinite 

387 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Heart, Infinite Will, and that these 
three must be bound together in some 
sort of conscious unity. But this con- 
forms to our psychological definition of 
Personality. Thus our modern thought 
of God's Personality grows out of our 
scientific understanding of human per- 
sonality; and the statement of Jesus, 
" He that hath seen Me, hath seen the 
Father," finds actual corroboration in 
our modern conception of the Uni- 
verse. 

So we must call God " personal." 
The highest that has been evolved in 
human life is personality; and what is 
evolved must have been first of all in- 
volved. The Infinite must include the 
finite, and since the finite knows per- 
sonality as itsi highest expression, so 
the Infinite must, at least, include Per- 
sonality in Itself, whatever else it may 
contain. And yet, while the word 
" personal " may be true as applied to 
388 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

God, it may be inadequate to explain 
the heights and depths of Infinite Per- 
sonality. As Herbert Spencer has said, 
" For aught we know the Eternal 
Power dwelling in this universe may 
be as much greater and grander in 
Personality than we are, as we are 
greater and grander in Personality 
than the flower or the animal." The 
tendency of recent philosophic thought 
is in the direction of the conception of 
a Personal Universe, or in other words, 
the feeling is growing in many minds 
that the ultimate reading of the Uni- 
verse must be not in impersonal, but in 
personal terms. 

People repeatedly ask me, " Do you 
believe in the Personality of God? " I 
usually reply by asking a question in 
return, " What do you mean by the 
Personality of God? " Almost invari- 
ably the answer is, in substance, this: 
" I mean, a great magnified sort of 
389 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

man, dwelling apart somewhere in the 
heavens, localized somewhere in space, 
perhaps sitting on a great white 
throne." : ' When I was a child, I 
thought as a child, but when I became 
a man I put away childish things," 
and this conception of God as a 
great magnified man, dwelling apart 
somewhere in space, was put away with 
many other childish conceptions of 
truth. 

Frankly, I do not believe in that 
kind of a Personal God, and I do not 
think that to-day, any intelligent per- 
son does. But I do believe in a Per- 
sonal God as we have sought to define 
Personality. Personality is a spiritual, 
not a physical thing. It consists of 
Heart, Mind and Will bound together 
in self-conscious Unity; not in form, or 
figure, or feature. The deeper mean- 
ing of the Infinite, the Eternal, the 
Absolute, the Ultimate Reality, the 
390 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

Universal Consciousness, upon whose 
bosom our individual consciousness al- 
ways rests, can most truly, though in 
no sense fully, be construed in terms 
of Infinite Mind, Infinite Goodness 
and Infinite Will; and these three are 
bound together in Conscious Unity, of 
which Consciousness we are all individ- 
ual parts. 

Sir Oliver Lodge, who not only 
speaks with scientific authority, but 
who is also doing splendid work in the 
field of the newer, constructive relig- 
ious thought, uses these significant 
words in a recent article : " We are ris- 
ing to the conviction that we are a part 
of Nature, and so a part of God; that 
the whole creation, the One and the 
Many, is travailing together toward 
some great end; and that now after 
ages of development, we have at length 
become conscious portions of the great 
scheme and can co-operate in it with 
391 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 
knowledge and with joy. We are no 
aliens in a strange universe, governed 
by an outside God; we are all parts of 
a developing whole, all enfolded in an 
embracing and interpenetrating love, of 
which we too sometimes experience the 
joy too deep for words. We may all 
be partial incarnations of a larger 
Personality." 

This is the expressed conviction not 
of a theologian, but of a scientist, and 
a great scientist too, who has been seek- 
ing to read the deeper meaning of life 
and the universe, who has been trying 
to construe in some real and satisfying 
terms the Ultimate Reality behind all 
" appearances." He finds that while 
the old conception of the God who gov- 
erns from outside, is gone forever, that 
the newer conception of the immanent 
God, as the Life of our lives, the Soul 
of the Universe, is not inconsistent with 
the spiritual conception of Personality, 
392 



THROUGH MAN TO GOD 

and that we may hold in a deeper sense 
than ever before, that 

" Spirit with spirit can meet, 
Closer is He than breathing, 
Nearer than hands and feet." 



393 




THE INNER LIGHT 

WO great tendencies are 
clearly manifest in the course 
of the history of religion. One 
tendency is to regard religion 
as something permanent and unchange- 
able; and the other equally funda- 
mental tendency is to revivify and re- 
interpret religion through fresh and 
spontaneous experiences of the soul. 
It is natural and inevitable that both 
tendencies should appear, for religion 
is both an eternal and a temporal thing. 
It possesses in itself elements both of 
permanence and of change. A religion 
that has any power, in a changing and 
evolving world, must of necessity con- 
stantly change and continually read- 
394 



THE INNER LIGHT 

just itself to its environment. On the 
other hand, no religion can truly min- 
ister to the deepest needs of men unless 
it reveals and emphasizes the Reali- 
ties which are permanent and time- 
less. 

Religion has been shorn again and 
again of its power because it has ignored 
one of these two tendencies, and allowed 
the other to be carried to an absurd ex- 
treme. We all realize the advantages, 
not only in religion but in all of life, of 
habit, custom, order and system. We 
know that the permanent gains of the 
race come through these channels. The 
conservative spirit in any age may con- 
serve worthless things, but it is also the 
spirit that binds the ages together and 
makes possible one humanity. It con- 
stitutes the very basis of our social 
morality and the ground of all our cor- 
porate activities. 

But, on the other hand, when religion 
395 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

closes up " the east window of divine 
surprise," and becomes a mechanical 
and formal system of beliefs and prac- 
tices, it ceases to be a living religion. 
A religion thus grown mechanical, 
either in its ecclesiasticism or in its the- 
ology, may continue to exert a certain 
disciplinary function in Society, or lin- 
ger on as a superstition from some by- 
gone age, but it has ceased to be Re- 
ligion in any real or primary sense. A 
living religion cannot be mechanical, it 
must be spontaneous. It must proceed 
out of a first-hand experience with 
Reality. It must possess the steadily 
deepening faith, the daring courage, 
the live enthusiasm and the joy too 
deep for words. So that the constant 
problem consists in keeping the proper 
balance between what is good and true, 
and therefore worth preserving in the 
past, and what is new and true and that 
must be preserved in the present, if 
396 



THE INNER LIGHT 

Religion is to be kept a living force in 
human lives. 

The truly great, creative moments 
in the progress of Religion have always 
been those times when the mechanism 
of Religion, either in its ecclesiasticism 
or its theology, has felt the impact of 
great personalities, who were capable 
of fresh and original experiences, who 
have brought new energies into play, 
or shifted the perspective of Truth, 
simply because they have themselves 
caught new visions or gained new in- 
sights. It has never been " the system " 
of organized religion that has made for 
religious progress, but ever and always 
the individual, either within or without 
the Church, in whose soul has dawned 
the new vision and who has sought to 
lead humanity to new and higher van- 
tage ground. I suppose there has 
never been a time when the Church has 
quite sunk to the low level of tradition, 
397 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

for the reason that there has always 
been beneath its system of organization 
and dogma a current, more or less hid- 
den, of vital, inward, spiritual religion, 
dependent for its true power not on 
Bibles, councils, hierarchies or creeds, 
but on the soul's living experience of 
eternal Realities. But the tragic weak- 
ness of organized religion through all 
the centuries, has been its tendency to 
settle into a " sacred " form of practices 
and system of beliefs. This is simply 
to surrender to some other age, or to 
other individuals, our personal and in- 
alienable right of having our own ex- 
perience of God and of doing our own 
religious thinking. It is no wonder that 
religion becomes mechanical and life- 
less when people are willing to take re- 
ligion at second-hand. 

Our age has grown w T eary of ancient 
traditions, of meaningless theologies, of 
formal religions, of empty phrases. 
398 



THE INNER LIGHT 

No one interprets this age aright who 
fails to recognize this fact. We have 
been ushered into a new Universe; we 
have discovered countless new worlds 
stretching away in all directions. And 
remember, these new worlds have been 
discovered as we have followed the only 
sure path of experience; so that we 
can never again settle down in child- 
like trust in the house which the Past 
has builded. The question we are put- 
ting in every field to-day is no longer 
the old question, " What do the scribes 
say? What do the schoolmen or the 
Fathers say? " The one, insistent ques- 
tion that we ask in every realm of 
thought and activity is, " What are the 
facts? " " What data does experience 
furnish? " Nothing is more character- 
istic of our modern age than this shift- 
ing of the seat of authority from out- 
side to inside, from the institution, the 
creed or the system to the inner " ex- 
399 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

perience," the soul of man. In the field 
of religion as elsewhere, the supreme 
questions are those which deal with life. 
We take little interest in dogmatic or 
speculative theories ; we turn from these 
with impatience and ask for the testi- 
mony of the soul, for the living expe- 
rience of living men, for the basis of 
religion in the nature of man as man. 
With this profound tendency in the 
modern world, it is not surprising that 
our deepest thinkers, our most serious 
minds, have turned their attention more 
eagerly and earnestly than ever before 
to the great Mystics of all ages. 

When we use the word " mysticism " 
as applied to religion, we need to ex- 
plain just what is meant by the term. 
To many people the word carries little 
or no meaning. To others it has an 
ominous and forbidding sound, as 
though the safe and beaten track were 
being forsaken for mere will-o'-the- 
400 



THE INNER LIGHT 

wisps. By mysticism we mean that 
type of religion which puts the em- 
phasis on immediate awareness of re- 
lation with God, on direct and intimate 
consciousness of the Divine Presence. 
In other words, it is Religion in its 
most intense, living and spiritual stage. 
Just because mysticism, then, means 
religion grounded primarily in expe- 
rience, it has peculiar interest for an 
age that demands as the basis of truth 
the testimony of " experience." This, 
in the main, has been the fundamental 
characteristic of all the mystics of 
history. 

This type of religion is by no means 
confined to Christianity, but belongs in 
some degree to all Faiths, for first- 
hand experiences of a Divine and 
Higher Presence are as old as human 
personality, in fact, they constitute the 
beginnings of all religions. Dr. Brin- 
ton in his book, " Religions of Primitive 
401 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

People," says that " all religions de- 
pend for their origin and continuance 
directly upon inspiration," that is, upon 
direct and immediate intercourse, not 
upon books, or institutions, or creeds. 
All sacred writings, all creeds, all in- 
stitutions of every religion, are the prod- 
uct, not the cause, of these first-hand 
experiences in the inner life of men. 
The men who have made religion a 
vital power for any people have been 
those who believed that they stood face 
to face with God and heard His voice 
and felt His presence in the very 
depths of their own souls. In Pro- 
fessor James' monumental work on 
" Varieties of Religious Experience," 
he quotes many instances of this class 
of religious experience, and as a scien- 
tific writer, recognizes frankly the va- 
lidity of such experiences that are com- 
mon to every age and every religion. 
Dr. Tylor bears witness to the same 
402 



THE INNER LIGHT 

fact, when he says in writing of primi- 
tive religions, " there are times when 
powers and impressions, words that al- 
most seem to be spoken by another 
voice, messages of mysterious knowl- 
edge, of counsel or warning, seem to 
indicate the intervention, as it were, of 
a second, superior soul." Whence 
came the sacred writings of all relig- 
ious faiths? They were not miracu- 
lously prepared and let down from the 
sky. They are the written experiences 
of men who believed that they heard 
the voice of God, that in their own inner 
consciousness His truth or His will had 
been revealed. 

This experience, common to all relig- 
ions, has never been lacking in any pe- 
riod of Christianity. If you have read 
the two volumes by Dr. Vaughan en- 
titled, " Hours with the Mystics," you 
will appreciate the fact that there has 
never been a time in the history of Chris- 
408 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

tianity when the mystics, the men for 
whom religion was not a thing of coun- 
cils, or church, or creed but rather of 
their own inner experience, did not live 
their spiritual lives. It is not always 
possible to trace a direct historical con- 
nection between these spiritual groups 
but the evidence is clear that there has 
been a continuous prophetical proces- 
sion down through the centuries, a mys- 
tical brotherhood of those who have 
lived by the soul's immediate vision. 

The direct consciousness of God, this 
inner experience of the eternal realities 
is, however, by no means confined to a 
few chosen spirits or the rare " gen- 
iuses " in religion. " There are multi- 
tudes of men and women in out-of-the- 
way places, in backwoods towns, and 
on uneventful farms, who are the salt of 
the earth and the light of the world in 
their respective communities, because 
they have had experiences which re- 
404 



THE INNER LIGHT 

vealed to them Realities which their 
neighbors missed, and powers to live 
by, which the mere ' church-goers ' 
failed to find." Many such have been 
looked upon with suspicion by their 
conventional neighbors; they have not 
been understood, they have often been 
called " free thinkers," or even " infi- 
dels," because they could not conform 
to the traditional theological tests. The 
Mystic has been the martyr of every 
age. He has been anathematized by the 
church, ostracized by society, shunned 
by his friends, persecuted, imprisoned 
and put to death in countless shameful 
ways. But he has ever been the true 
conservator of real Religion none the 
less, and without him, Christianity 
would have long since disappeared from 
the world. In every human life there is 
present something of the mystical. 
When we stop to reflect, we all find 
that in addition to the outer life we live, 
405 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

there is a deep inner life, however in- 
different we may be to its significance. 
Our finite selves do, at times, open out 
on the Infinite. Our particular con- 
sciousness does, occasionally, realize 
that it is but part of the Universal Con- 
sciousness. The mystical experience 
belongs to every life, only most of us 
do not recognize it as such or appreciate 
its true meaning. 

The history of Religion reveals the 
fact that the Mystic has been the true 
savior of spiritual religion in every 
age. He has been the leaven in the 
lump, the flame within the smoke, the 
vital spark in the otherwise dead body. 
He has saved Christianity again and 
again from being utterly submerged 
under scholastic formalism and ecclesi- 
astical systems which were foreign to 
man's essential nature and were stifling 
to his spirit. Far from being the un- 
practical dreamers they are too often 
406 



THE INNER LIGHT 

conceived to have been, they have 
braved storms, endured conflicts and 
gone through fiery afflictions that would 
have overwhelmed the one whose anchor 
did not reach within the veil. They 
have led great reforms and championed 
movements of great moment to human- 
ity. They have been prophets of Truth 
who have blazed the way to new and 
higher view points. They have been 
spiritual leaders who have inspired the 
dispirited hosts and led them to higher 
levels of life. They have ever been the 
God-sent men and women who have 
saved humanity from stagnation and 
marshaled the race along lines of 
higher progress; and they have been 
able to render these high services be- 
cause they felt themselves allied in- 
wardly with a personal Power larger 
than themselves, who was working with 
them and through them. 

There is no question that there are 
407 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

" mystical experiences," which are ab- 
normal and pathological, but there is 
no more reason for narrowing the word 
" mysticism " to cover this type alone 
than there is for using the word " love " 
for pathological love alone. Mystical 
experience may stretch over all the de- 
grees from the most perfect sanity to 
utter disorganization of the Self. It is 
the sane and normal mysticism that 
alone concerns us now. President King 
of Oberlin College says, " The truly 
mystical may be summed up as simply 
a protest in favor of the whole man — 
the entire personality. It says that 
men can experience, and live, and feel, 
and do much more than they can form- 
ulate, define, explain, or even fully ex- 
press. Living is more than thinking." 

For some reason, Mystical Religion, 

which has been in the world from the 

beginning, which is always the heart of 

every living religion and which has 

408 



THE INNER LIGHT 

been the saving element in the history 
of Christianity, has shown little tend- 
ency toward organizing or propagating 
itself. In all ages it has spread by a 
sort of spiritual contagion rather than 
through any organized system. It has 
broken forth where the Spirit listed. 
The principle underlying mysticism 
found its final and clearest enunciation 
at the time of the Puritan Reformation, 
in the Doctrine of the Inner Light. It 
took its rise in a great epoch-making 
group of spiritual experiences, in an 
age when life had largely departed 
from the established religious forms. 
This principle, as we have seen, had lain 
enfolded in Christian teaching, from 
the beginning, but like every great truth 
it became a gospel of power for the lib- 
eration and enlargement of men's lives 
only when it was clearly articulated and 
set forth by persons who had mastered 
its secret. Such persons were found in 
409 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

George Fox and the other leaders of 
the Quaker movement. The world has 
not yet fully recognized how immense 
is the debt it owes to the great Quaker 
leaders. They not only fought the 
great battle for religious liberty, but 
they pioneered the way toward a truly 
spiritual type of religion, for which the 
world was not ready then, but which a 
steadily increasing number see, ever 
more clearly, is the ultimate goal of 
religion. 

What was the Doctrine of the Inner 
Light that constituted the cornerstone 
of Quakerism? In the first place, it 
consisted of a profound conviction that 
grew out of a living experience. If you 
turn to the writings of the early found- 
ers of Quakerism you will find that 
they all have one thing to say, — "I 
have experienced God." It was not a 
question of the Bible, or the Church, or 
any Creed. Religion to them was a 
410 



THE INNER LIGHT 

fact of their own inner personal experi- 
ence. " Quakerism was, as we are 
sometimes told, a new social experi- 
ment. It was, too, a new attempt to 
organize a Spiritual Christian fellow- 
ship like that which existed in the first 
century. But it was first of all, a proc- 
lamation of an experience. The move- 
ment came to birth and received its 
original power, through persons who 
were no less profoundly conscious of a 
Divine Presence than they were of a 
world in space." 

Read the writings of men like George 
Fox, Isaac Pennington, Robert Bar- 
clay, etc., leaders of the early move- 
ment, and you will be convinced that 
nowhere else can be found a more in- 
sistent testimony to the fact that God 
is found w T ithin. From their own per- 
sonal experience they passed at once to 
wide and far-reaching conclusions. 
With tireless reiteration they announced 
411 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

their discovery as a universal truth — 
that every human life partakes of God. 
So they wrote their bulky volumes 
and gave to the world their innumerable 
pamphlets and journals, with the one 
purpose of convincing men that the 
same " experience of God " which had 
come to them, might be the experience 
of every individual. By word and life 
they sought to help men see that in 
every single life there was this Divine 
germ, waiting only to be awakened into 
being, this latent God-consciousness, 
waiting only to be lifted into the clear 
consciousness of the individual. George 
Fox's " Journal " reveals that he felt 
his life continually to be subject to in- 
cursions of some larger Life from be- 
yond the margins of his own personal 
consciousness. He tells of the long 
search for inward peace which filled the 
time from his twenty-first to his twenty- 
fourth year, and which finally culmi- 
412 



THE INNER LIGHT 

nated in " an experience that made his 
heart leap for joy." 

The Quakers, like all Mystics, be- 
lieved that a life, a light, an influence, 
a power surged up within them out of 
the deep. " They felt the tides of a 
larger sea flowing in their souls. They 
were strongly aware of a heightened 
life. They became conscious of truths 
and principles which they had never 
known before. The boundaries of the 
self had widened by an energy from 
within. Without much critical analysis 
they bounded to the conclusion that the 
infinite ocean of Divine Life had sent 
its tides flowing into the narrow inlets 
of their individual lives, that this new 
power and illumination was the Eternal 
Christ come again to human conscious- 
ness." Best of all, this inward experi- 
ence did unify their lives and produce 
results in character and action. " From 
being a melancholy, dreamy, solitary 
413 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

" Just as the capacity of a man or a 
woman is not only in the child, but even 
in the very embryo, even so Christ Him- 
self, i. e. the divine spirit, is in every man 
and woman's heart as an incorruptible 
seed." Every child brings this divine 
seed with him into the world, and so 
does actually come, " trailing clouds of 
glory ; " he does bring with him from 
God, a Divine soul-center. But this 
Divine " seed " may lie hidden and un- 
regarded, as a jewel might be lost to 
view in the dust. 

There followed, as a corollary of this 
principle, the conviction that direct 
communications are possible from God 
to man. In other words, the Inner 
Light is a principle of revelation and 
illumination. So that every man may 
have " openings of truth." If we be- 
lieve that it has ever been possible in 
the past for God to reveal Himself to 
man, there is no reason why He should 
416 



THE INNER LIGHT 

not do so to-day, unless God is a change- 
able Being. The mystic not only be- 
lieves that God once spoke, but that He 
speaks to-day wherever there is the 
honest and reverent soul. God's reve- 
lation to man has never been closed, 
and the finality of truth has never been 
contained in any one or all of the creeds. 
The mystic is simply consistent in his 
belief in a living God. So the Quaker 
ministry is supposed to be the utterance 
of convictions that are given by the 
Spirit. This Light within is also held 
to be an illumination which makes the 
path of Duty plain through the 
conscience. 

It is extremely significant to note in 
this connection, the recent writings of 
Henri Bergson of the College of 
France, who is being hailed as the 
greatest contemporary philosopher, and 
" whose appearance in the field of phi- 
losophy promises to be a turning point 
417 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

in the history of human thought." He 
stands to-day as the great prophet of 
Intuition and of Freedom. " Intui- 
tion," he says, " is moulded on the very 
form of life. If the consciousness that 
slumbers in it could awake, if it were 
wound up into knowledge instead of 
being wound off into action, if we could 
ask and it could answer, it would give 
up to us the most intimate secrets of 
Life." And he cries to us: "Let us 
try to see no longer with the eyes of 
the Intellect alone, which grasps only 
the already made and which looks from 
the outside, but with the Spirit ; I mean 
with that faculty of seeing which is im- 
minent in the faculty of acting, and 
which springs up, somehow, by the 
twisting of the will on itself, when 
action is turned into knowledge, like 
heat into light." In Bergson we have 
a philosophic basis for the Mystic's 
doctrine of the Inner Light, coming 
418 



/ 



THE INNER LIGHT 

from one of the greatest of living 
thinkers. 

But there is a third aspect of the doc- 
trine of the Inner Light: that the 
ground of religion is in the individual's 
own inner consciousness and not some- 
where outside him. In this sense, the 
Inner Light means that religious truth 
is self -demonstrating. George Fox did 
not send his inquirers directly to the 
Bible, or to any teacher, but rather 
turned their attention to the Divine 
Spirit within themselves, and taught 
that only within would they find the 
criterion for truth and the guidance for 
the right understanding of the Scrip- 
tures. For centuries the Roman Cath- 
olic Church had taught that the seat of 
authority in religion was in the Church. 
The Protestant Reformation under 
Luther, at the outset, transferred the 
seat of authority from the Church to 
the Individual, but later placed it in the 
419 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

in the history of human thought." He 
stands to-day as the great prophet of 
Intuition and of Freedom. " Intui- 
tion," he says, " is moulded on the very 
form of life. If the consciousness that 
slumbers in it could awake, if it were 
wound up into knowledge instead of 
being wound off into action, if we could 
ask and it could answer, it would give 
up to us the most intimate secrets of 
Life." And he cries to us: "Let us 
try to see no longer with the eyes of 
the Intellect alone, which grasps only 
the already made and which looks from 
the outside, but with the Spirit ; I mean 
with that faculty of seeing which is im- 
minent in the faculty of acting, and 
which springs up, somehow, by the 
twisting of the will on itself, when 
action is turned into knowledge, like 
heat into light." In Bergson we have 
a philosophic basis for the Mystic's 
doctrine of the Inner Light, coming 
418 



THE INNER LIGHT 

from one of the greatest of living 
thinkers. 

But there is a third aspect of the doc- 
trine of the Inner Light: that the 
ground of religion is in the individual's 
own inner consciousness and not some- 
where outside him. In this sense, the 
Inner Light means that religious truth 
is self -demonstrating. George Fox did 
not send his inquirers directly to the 
Bible, or to any teacher, but rather 
turned their attention to the Divine 
Spirit within themselves, and taught 
that only within would they find the 
criterion for truth and the guidance for 
the right understanding of the Scrip- 
tures. For centuries the Roman Cath- 
olic Church had taught that the seat of 
authority in religion was in the Church. 
The Protestant Reformation under 
Luther, at the outset, transferred the 
seat of authority from the Church to 
the Individual, but later placed it in the 
419 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

Bible. The Mystic of all ages, and the 
Quaker of more modern times, alone 
fulfill the reformation principle: that 
religious truth is to be apprehended by 
each man for himself; nothing, no 
church or Bible or creed, is to come 
between the individual soul and God. 
" In a word, the soul of man itself pos- 
sesses a ground of certitude in spiritual 
matters, and it sees what is essential to 
its life with the same intuitional direct- 
ness that the mathematician sees his 
axioms." This self-demonstration of 
spiritual experience is in closest har- 
mony with the profoundest philosoph- 
ical movement of the modern world. It 
has been settled for all time that the 
ultimate criterion of truth is to be found 
in the nature of consciousness itself — 
not anywhere else. Churches, Bibles 
and creeds will render invaluable service 
to man in the future, but never again 
will they dictate to the human mind 
420 



THE INNER LIGHT 

what it shall think, nor hold the free 
spirit of man in thraldom. 

The Doctrine of the Inner Light or 
the formulated principles underlying 
mysticism can be regarded then in three 
ways : As a Divine Life resident in the 
soul, as a source of guidance and illu- 
mination, and as a ground of spiritual 
certitude. 

What have been the more important 
results of this principle on modern 
thought and life? The first effect of a 
clear perception of the fact that God 
communicates Himself directly to all 
human souls, is a deepened sense of the 
place and value of individual personal- 
ity. He in whom God dwells, whom 
God deems worthy to receive His direct 
message, must have a high intrinsic 
worth, must be, potentially at least, a 
king by divine right within the domain 
of his own being. He must be his own 
priest, offer up his own sacrifices, do his 
421 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

own worshipping, and in his own way. 
However much he may appeal to others 
for instruction and help he must, in the 
last analysis, be his own interpreter of 
what he is to believe and follow. Here- 
in is found the primal secret of relig- 
ious liberty, indeed of all liberty. The 
soul that realizes this high prerogative 
can admit of no lordship of men over it. 
It is to God alone that it bows in rever- 
ent and loving submission. With the 
self-respect and the devotion to right- 
eousness come courage and endurance in 
the face of all persecution and suffer- 
ing, if these must be met. 

This secret of liberty and of earnest, 
patient, heroic effort for its attainment, 
has been the common possession of all 
the prophets and martyrs of freedom, 
though realized less clearly and freely 
by some than by others. It inspired, 
directed and upheld the Pilgrims, and 
in somewhat less measure the Puritans, 
422 



THE INNER LIGHT 

but to a pre-eminent degree the Friends 
both in the Old World and in the New, 
in their great moral struggle for lib- 
erty of self-directed worship. It was 
the guiding star of John Robinson, of 
William Brewster, of Thomas Hooker, 
of Roger Williams, of George Fox and 
of William Penn, though it did not lead 
them all equally far. 

True self-respect is a great thing, but 
genuine respect for others is a still 
greater thing and much harder to 
attain. But the principle of the Divine 
Presence in the human soul created in- 
telligent, large-minded respect for 
others. It was just here that the Doc- 
trine of the Inner Light produced one 
of its finest fruits. Great and noble as 
were many of the Puritans, and deep as 
was their own self-respect, leading them 
to endure persecutions and offer pro- 
tection to all who shared their beliefs, 
still, as a class, the Puritans did not go 
423 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

far enough to see the wider implications 
of self-respect. For they became per- 
secutors and put men and women to 
death for insisting on the same liberty 
of religious thought, interpretation and 
statement, which they had suffered all 
manner of hardships to obtain for them- 
selves. It was the Friends of the seven- 
teenth century — and to their lasting 
glory be it said — who carried this prin- 
ciple of respect for others to its logical 
conclusion. They granted to all others, 
without regard to creed, what they 
claimed for themselves. They argued 
that if God reveals Himself to the souls 
of other men as well as to themselves, 
then all other men have the stamp of 
worthiness put upon them by the Infi- 
nite Himself. Whom God respects in 
this high way, I must respect even as 
I respect myself. I must leave him 
free to think and to respond to God in 
his own way. Men may differ from me 
424 



THE INNER LIGHT 

as widely as the poles are apart : I shall 
still respect them. I must uphold for 
them the liberty to think, and to speak 
as they think, even as I claim these pre- 
rogatives for myself. They may be 
wicked and unworthy and I may feel 
myself bound in duty to try to bring 
them back to the path of goodness ; but 
even then I must employ only the high 
art of persuasion by truth and love, and 
never the low art of compulsion by brute 
force and persecution. Never have I 
the right to burn their bodies, and no 
more have I the right to brand their 
lives with labels or epithets that might 
cause pain or injure their influence. 
Let us never forget that the Friends, 
these glorious mystics, never persecuted 
or showed the least spirit of persecution 
even when they had the power. They 
did not retaliate against those who had 
maltreated them and sent so many of 
their choicest spirits to prison and to 
425 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

death. They thus won for themselves 
and for humanity the greatest victory 
for liberty ever gained, and bequeathed 
to us — let us hope for all time — the 
fundamental principle of respect for the 
personalities, the intellectual and spirit- 
ual liberties of other men than one's 
self. We who have entered into this 
rich legacy need to remember its cost in 
blood; e. g. one person died in prison 
for the sake of this principle every 
month during the entire reign of 
Charles I. 

But the doctrine of the Inner Light 
carried its followers one step further. 
It gave them a profoundly new sense 
of the Brotherhood of Man. The Mys- 
tics of all ages have believed in the 
Brotherhood of Man not as a senti- 
mental idea, not as a philosophic cor- 
relate of the Fatherhood of God, but as 
a real, practical working-theory. They 
said: Just because He is the All- 
426 



THE INNER LIGHT 

Father, because His Love is universal 
and impartial toward all, good and bad 
alike, because He is present in every 
individual, so we know that we are all 
kinsmen in the common family of God. 
They saw God conducting Himself as 
a Father toward all men as well as to- 
ward themselves, and doing this in the 
deepest and truest way. They saw 
Him holding communion with them, 
enlightening, instructing, inspiring, 
guiding, supporting, comforting as well 
as reproving and disciplining them, with 
a Father's faithfulness, patience, wis- 
dom and love. The brotherhood of men 
was thus to them a practical divine 
kinship. 

They not only taught it, they lived it. 
They gave their lives to the relieving 
of the distressed, the uplifting of the 
downtrodden, the deliverance of those 
in bondage, the amelioration of the lot 
of prisoners and other unfortunates, 
427 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

universal religious liberty, and the en- 
deavor to secure for all, equality of 
rights before the law. It was their 
practice, of brotherhood that made their 
work the greatest contribution ever yet 
made to the cause of civil and religious 
liberty. 

But why are we interested in ex- 
pounding the Doctrine of the Inner 
Life in this connection? This Doctrine, 
as we have seen, formulates the main 
principles which have lain at the heart 
of Mystical Religion throughout all the 
Ages. But Mystical Religion, as we 
have defined it, is only another name 
for Spiritual Religion — the goal to- 
ward which Religion has been moving 
from the beginning — because it is only 
through a truly spiritual religion that 
Man's personality can ever become free 
to unfold, and thus fulfill its God- 
appointed destiny. The greatest expo- 
nent of Mystical, or Spiritual Religion 
428 



THE INNER LIGHT 

in human history is Jesus of Nazareth. 
Men have worshipped Him but they 
have never yet, save in exceptional 
cases, risen to His conception of the 
meaning of religion and of life. 

To-day the heart-hunger of our age, 
though all men are by no means con- 
scious of it and many others cannot 
explain the meaning of their hunger of 
soul, is for a truly spiritual religion. 
This means a new self-respect, in the 
steadily deepening consciousness of the 
God who dwells within; a new respect 
for all men, in the recognition of the 
Divine Presence in every life; and a 
new and practical appreciation of uni- 
versal brotherhood, in the realization of 
our common kinship in God's great 
family. 

The Mystic is the one individual in 
history who has caught the vision of a 
spiritual religion, and has sought, how- 
ever imperfectly, to translate that vision 
429 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 
into life and character. The Society of 
Friends, more than any other religious 
organization, has stood for a complete 
and thorough-going Spiritual concep- 
tion of religion. To them we owe an 
immeasurable debt of gratitude for hav- 
ing blazed the path toward the truly 
Spiritual Age that is to be. The prin- 
ciple of the Divine Life in every human 
soul is but the spiritual side of the mod- 
ern conception of the immanency of 
God. If we accept this thought of 
God, we must accept its inevitable 
corollary in our thought of man. To 
do this, is to grasp the idea of a Spirit- 
ual Religion. The coming Church will 
be built on this great spiritual prin- 
ciple: that nothing can come between 
the individual soul and God. All in- 
stitutions, all creeds, all rituals and or- 
dinances will be forever subordinated 
to the inalienable rights of the indi- 
vidual soul, for there is nothing in all 
430 



THE INNER LIGHT 

the world so sacred, as the God within 
the soul of Man. It is the great mod- 
ern mystic, Robert Browning, who says : 

" Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise 
From outward things; whate'er you may be- 
lieve. 
There is an inmost center in us all, 
Where truth abides in fulness: and around, 
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, 
This perfect, clear perception — which is 

truth, 
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh 
Binds it and makes all error: and, to know, 
Rather consists in opening out a way 
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, 
Than in effecting entry for a light 
Supposed to be without." 



431 




THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

iCCORDING to our psycho- 
logical analysis, there are three 
stages in the unfolding of 
human personality. The first 
stage is the world-consciousness, in 
which man is engrossed in the stream of 
sensations that flow in upon him from 
the outside world. The second stage is 
self-consciousness, in which he goes 
forth in eager ambition to subject this 
outward world of men and things to 
the forms of his understanding and the 
service of his will. The third stage is 
God-consciousness, in which, weary of 
himself, and finding no satisfaction in 
his little, isolated, restricted world, he 
turns towards the larger Self that en- 
432 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

folds him, and resolves to devote his 
matured powers of reflection and self- 
determination to the unselfish service of 
objective and universal ends. The first 
stage is the state of nature. The second 
is the plane of science, of business, of 
politics, of art, and culture. The third 
is the realm of religion. 

These stages are not mutually ex- 
clusive. The higher include the lower. 
They mark the different degrees of 
maturity of the one indivisible, unfold- 
ing life of man. This describes the 
normal evolution through which every 
individual soul must sooner or later 
pass, as it moves towards the great goal 
of Personality. Interpreting religion 
in terms of psychology, we find that 
when the individual self becomes con- 
scious that it is a part of the larger Self, 
and begins to live its life in relation to, 
and harmony with that larger Self, 
then, and not till then, does it truly be- 
433 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

come a Personality; and to become the 
well-rounded Personality is to fulfill the 
destiny for which one has been called 
into being. But, " to fulfill one's des- 
tiny," must be identical with " becom- 
ing truly religious," for both expres- 
sions stand for the highest possible to 
man. Or, in other words, if we base 
religion on what we know of human 
nature as revealed by modern psychol- 
ogy, it consists of the inter-relationship 
in the inner life of the individual con- 
sciousness with the universal conscious- 
ness, of the finite mind with the Infinite 
mind, of the personal will with the 
World-will, of the self with the Larger 
Self, of the human with the Divine. 

What we shall now endeavor to show 
is that this scientific conception of re- 
ligion, based on the psychology of man, 
really constitutes the very essence of 
Christianity, not as interpreted through 
its creeds or its ecclesiasticism, but 
434 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

Christianity as taught and lived by the 
Man of Nazareth, and then as under- 
stood by its two earliest and greatest 
interpreters, St. Paul and St. John. 

When we go back to its sources, we 
find that the central idea of Christianity 
lies in the inter-relationship, or the 
essential oneness of the human and the 
divine. For centuries men have been 
taught that there was a real difference 
between the essential natures of God 
and man. Theology has dug a deep, 
wide gulf between the Divine and the 
human, and has taught that the only 
way God could possibly bridge this gulf 
and get over into human life, was 
through some miracle, that is, by an in- 
fraction of the laws which He had Him- 
self established; and that He per- 
formed this miracle in the birth of Jesus 
Christ, so that in Jesus alone, we see 
the Divine-Human life. Belief in the 
divinity of Christ, however, does not 
435 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

rest on such narratives as the " Stories 
of the Infancy " introduced into the 
opening chapters of Matthew and 
Luke; and is entirely independent of 
the question whether we interpret these 
narratives as fact or fancy, poetry or 
prose. The divinity of Christ is merely 
a question of the agreement of two con- 
ceptions: the conception of the moral 
and spiritual character of God, and the 
historic human life and work of Jesus. 
That the Father is greater than the Son 
is evident, but that they are at one in 
the moral and spiritual elements in 
which the two can coincide, is the essen- 
tial truth involved in the divinity of 
Christ. 

The title, Son of God, was not one 
which Jesus gave Himself. In the 
Synoptic Gospels He does not use it 
once, although He speaks of Himself 
as the Son of Man sixty-nine times. 
It is a title which His life and charac- 
436 



THE DIVINE - HUMAN LIFE 

ter drew forth from those who witnessed 
it and undertook to interpret it. 
" Truly," says the centurion, " this was 
the Son of God." So says the author 
of the Fourth Gospel in his attempt to 
give the historic Life its ideal and 
eternal setting. So has replied the faith 
of nineteen centuries. Jesus Christ is 
the best we know or can conceive, of 
moral and spiritual excellence. There- 
fore, either Jesus must be the revelation 
of God to us, or else God will be to our 
thinking a mere name, about which we 
can affirm nothing. 

The true Infinite does not dwell re- 
mote and inaccessible. He is immanent 
in the Universe, in every life and in each 
particular atom. The only Infinite we 
can conceive is in the symmetrical ful- 
fillment of finite relationships. There 
have been many spiritual gains in the 
last century, but none is greater than 
the new insight, growing steadily 
437 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

clearer, that the perfection of humanity 
is the revelation of Divinity. This is in 
no sense to lower the Divine, but it is to 
lift the human to that high place where 
Jesus saw it belonged, but where the 
theologians of the past have been un- 
willing to put it. Jesus Christ is the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily; all of 
the divine nature and spirit that can be 
manifested in human form, dwell in 
him. He is the God-man, in whose con- 
sciousness the Divine and the human 
blend into one, unified Personality. He 
reveals, at the same time, how human is 
the heart of God and how divine may 
be the life of man. His whole teaching 
consists in this: That as He is, so we 
may become. He stands thus in his- 
tory as the norm of human life, as the 
true and representative type of Per- 
sonality, as the One who ushers in the 
new day for the race. He is indeed the 
Light of the World, because in Him we 
438 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

see the human element, spiritualized, 
dominated, controlled by the Divine, 
and the Divine, permeating, mingling 
with and revealing itself through the 
human — prophetic of a truly spiritual 
humanity that is to be. 

Read the simple Gospel narratives 
just as they stand, apart from precon- 
ceived notions, and see how perfectly 
normal is the unfolding of His self -con- 
sciousness into God-consciousness, and 
how little basis there is for the countless 
theological speculations regarding the 
Person of Christ, " the two Natures," 
etc. As a matter of fact all these dog- 
mas were introduced into Christianity 
through the influence of Greek intel- 
lectualism. They do not belong to 
essential Christianity. The central idea 
of Christianity is the normal, realized 
union in the inner consciousness of the 
human and the Divine. In the true 
Personality of Jesus we see that com- 
439 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

plete union, but in every individual life 
we discern its actual possibilities. 

The first interpretations of Chris- 
tianity came through St. Paul and St. 
John. These two men stand among the 
world's foremost mystics. They be- 
lieved in an immediate and direct ap- 
proach to God through their own inner 
consciousness. It was not a question of 
the Bible, for the Bible was not in ex- 
istence when they lived. It was not a 
question of church authority, for the 
churches of their day were simple 
Brotherhoods of those who loved and 
believed in Jesus, without any system 
either of theology or of ecclesiasticism. 
Neither was it primarily a question of 
the historical life of Jesus, for Paul 
makes scarcely any reference to the 
facts of Jesus' life and declares that he 
is determined henceforth to know Christ 
no longer after the flesh; and John 
bases his Gospel on the philosophical 
440 



THE DIVINE - HUMAN LIFE 

idea of the Logos, and handles the his- 
torical material in the freest possible 
manner. 

Let us begin with Paul, who gives us 
the earliest interpretation of Christian- 
ity which we possess. We need to be 
reminded again that when Paul uses 
the term " Christ " he is not speaking 
of the historic Jesus. The word 
" Christ " is to him a name for the 
Divine Nature revealed in human lives. 
He sees " the Christ " in its fulness 
in Jesus, no one more clearly, but he 
sees just as truly that the eternal Christ, 
or the Divine Life dwells in him and in 
all men, in just the degree that they be- 
come conscious of its presence. We 
need to keep this distinction clearly in 
mind, for it is the only clue to the true 
meaning of so much of the mystical lan- 
guage in Paul's writings. 

There are several autobiographical 
passages where Paul alludes to his own 
441 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

personal experience. In one of these he 
speaks of being " joined to the Lord in 
one spirit; " and again he uses this ex- 
pression: "It pleased God to reveal 
His Son," not to me, but " in me; " that 
is, in his own inner consciousness he felt 
that he had come to know the divine 
Christ, the divine nature, even God 
Himself. And this inward life reaches 
such a degree of union that he finally 
cries out: "It is no longer I that live, 
but Christ (i. e. the Divine nature) 
liveth in me." Religion for Paul is 
what it has always been for every true 
mystic, an inner personal experience of 
God's presence. He sees that no church 
or creed or Bible can come between his 
soul and God. 

Then there is a large group of pas- 
sages scattered throughout the Epistles, 
which make spiritual life consist in a 
central oneness of the human with the 
Divine: " The mystery (or as we should 
442 



THE DIVINE - HUMAN LIFE 

say, the essential fact) of the Gospel is 
Christ in you." ' Your life is hid with 
Christ in God." " If Christ is in you, 
the spirit is life." The profound prayer 
in Ephesians asks that " Christ may 
dwell in your hearts," that " ye may be 
filled to all fulness with God," not with 
something like God — there is no qual- 
ification — " filled to all fulness with 
God," the Divine Life itself. 

In all these passages, Salvation is not 
something wrought for us by the Divine 
Life either outside or within. Salvation 
is the Divine Life resident in a human 
life. To be saved, according to Paul, 
does not consist in merely believing that 
Jesus died for us. To be saved is to be 
awakened to the consciousness that the 
same Divine Life that dwelt in Jesus, 
dwells in us. As Harnack says, " Jesus 
leads men to God, and then leaves them 
alone to live their lives grandly in 
Him." 

443 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

There is a beautiful confusion of 
terms in Paul's writings. Sometimes 
he speaks of our " walking in the 
Spirit," and again of the " Spirit dwell- 
ing in us; " sometimes of the " Christ 
abiding in us," and again of our " abi- 
ding in Christ." But whatever terms he 
uses, he always means the same thing. 
He is seeking, like the mystics of all 
ages, to express the great fact of the 
essential oneness of God and man; of 
the vital unity between the divine and 
the human. " This infinite aspect of 
the spiritual life which holds so promi- 
nent a place in Paul's writings, is bound 
up with this great fact of the Divine- 
Human inter-relation. The two lives 
open into each other, as one's narrow 
casement opens into the sun." The 
wondrous process of spiritual develop- 
ment sweeps on, until Paul can say, 
" For me to live is Christ." All of life, 
its work, its truth, its beauty, its love, is 
444 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

to live " Christ; " not to live Jesus of 
Nazareth, but to live the same Divine 
Life that dwelt in Jesus. 

Or think of Paul's conception of 
Faith. How many heavy burdens this 
word Faith has been compelled to bear! 
When religion has been of a high and 
spiritual type, faith has had a noble 
meaning and performed a high func- 
tion. But when religion has dropped to 
a low plane, and has been made a 
scheme to ferry the soul across the river 
of death from an evil world to a peace- 
ful paradise, faith has sunk to the low 
level of credulity and often even of 
superstition. If you can find out what 
a man means by his use of the word 
" faith," you know r at once the secret of 
his religion. Faith is not blind, or pas- 
sive, or irrational. It sees clearly, it 
acts energetically, it is frankly reason- 
able. Faith is never the antithesis of 
Reason, neither is it believing an un- 
445 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

verified opinion, nor accepting some- 
thing on authority. Faith may mean 
the noblest and mightiest power in life, 
or it may stand for the meanest and 
most unworthy thing. Paul's concep- 
tion of faith had its birth in his own 
personal experience. For him faith is 
always the inward activity by which the 
entire self, — heart, mind and will, — 
responds to God. It never means be- 
lieving a certain set of doctrines, as most 
people even to-day construe faith. 
True faith is the spirit of the student 
who enters the university full of ambi- 
tion and enthusiasm, and throws him- 
self into the prosecution of his studies 
with perfect confidence that as he thus 
employs his own mental powers and 
uses all the advantages offered, he will 
be able to attain to the knowledge he 
craves. Faith is the spirit of the man 
who energetically, enthusiastically, and 
with confidence throws himself into his 
446 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

business enterprise. He believes in it, 
he believes in himself, and he feels it is 
possible for him to find not only joy 
and satisfaction in his work but also 
that he will ultimately attain success. 
This is what Paul meant by faith — not 
intellectual belief, not accepting an un- 
verified opinion, least of all the sacrifi- 
cing of reason. Faith is the inward 
energy that arouses the whole man, and 
leads the entire Self to respond confi- 
dently and joyously to the indwelling 
God. 

There is another word that Paul uses 
to express this appropriation of the 
Divine Life. It is the word " Love." 
It is impossible to wholly separate Faith 
and Love. They are really different 
stages of one activity. " Faith worketh 
through love;" "with the heart man 
believeth," not with the head; and 
again, it is " love that believeth all 
things." In the Faith stage there is 
447 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

still remaining the contrast of subject 
and object — of " mine " and " thine." 
Love penetrates below this contrast. It 
achieves the true union of life. It blends 
the human and Divine into one. Paul 
set himself to re-live the Christ-life by 
faith, because he discovered that the 
Divine-human life of Jesus loved to the 
degree that it gave itself utterly for the 
sake of all. " He died for all," and that 
is why we are constrained to die unto 
self and to live unto Him. Divine Love 
is the power unto Salvation. The first 
fruit of the Spirit is Love. Tongues, 
prophecies, wonder-workings, healings, 
are all inferior to Love. Love is the 
way to truth; "Being rooted and 
grounded in love ye may be able to 
comprehend." Love is the new guiding 
principle of ethics, for " love is the ful- 
filling of the law." Love is the greatest 
thing in the world, greater than hope, 
greater even than faith, for " now abi- 
448 



THE DIVINE - HUMAN LIFE 

deth faith, hope and love, hut the great- 
est of these is love." 

This idea of the inter-relationship of 
the Divine and the human reaches its 
highest expression in two great figures 
— the person as a Temple, and the per- 
son as a member of one organic body. 
' Ye are the Temple of the Holy 
Spirit." Not in any consecrated edifice, 
or in any so-called sacred place, but in 
the individual life is the true revealing 
place of God. This is the basis for 
Paul's wonderful optimism. Sin may 
abound, the flesh may be weak, the old 
habits may be deeply fixed, but the 
great fact remains that God does in- 
habit human lives and will join them to 
Himself in " one Spirit." But the 
Temple idea is expanded from the in- 
dividual to Society, and he sees a vast 
Kingdom of Temples. All these indi- 
vidual spiritual buildings fitly framed 
together grow into a holy Arch-Temple 
449 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

for the habitation of God. The idea is 
sublime. 

But the Temple figure is not quite 
adequate to his thought of growth, so 
he passes over to the figure of the living 
Body. " Ye are the body of Christ (i. e. 
the Divine Life) and each one of you 
is a particular member of the body." 
The whole purpose of our activity 
should be " the building up of the body 
of Christ," that "we may grow up in all 
things into Him who is the Head, even 
Christ." Paul's thought is identical 
with the modern organic conception of 
Society. It is the biological conception 
of religion rather than the theological. 
" Humanity in Paul's thought is to be- 
come a Kingdom of God, but with no 
remote King who imposes laws and 
commands obedience from without. It 
is rather a spiritualized humanity, a new 
social order, a re-creation, a kingdom 
not in word but in life and power, a 
450 



THE DIVINE - HUMAN LIFE 

divine society with the living God as its 
inward law and spirit, realizing His In- 
finite purposes through human individ- 
uals." Unspeakably sublime is Paul's 
conception of the inter-relation between 
the human and the divine ! His vision of 
a new and spiritualized humanity rested 
upon his own inner experience. The 
Divine Life was revealed in him, and 
what was true for him might be true for 
anybody. The heart of Paul's Gospel 
is the good news that God is continu- 
ally realizing His presence in the lives 
of men. He saw the Divine-human life 
completely realized in one Person, but 
he saw it potential in all persons. His 
message to the Athenians, pagans 
though they were, tells it all in a single 
sentence, " We live our lives in God's 
life." 

We might in the same way show how 
the idea of a Divine-human inter-rela- 
tionship is clearly present throughout 
451 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

all the synoptic Gospels. The pure in 
heart shall " see " God, within. " Say 
not ye * lo here, or lo there,' for the 
Kingdom of God is within you." 
" Whosoever shall do the Will of my 
Father, the same is my mother and my 
brother and my sister." Jesus takes 
these plain, average, human men and 
women up into the holy family and 
makes them one with Himself, on the 
one condition of doing the Will of God ; 
and He explains that God's will is ever 
and always Good-will, the fullest ex- 
pression of which is found in the spirit 
of unselfishness and love. At the close 
of the Sermon on the Mount, He utters 
those words, so marvelous in their sub- 
lime conception that we almost hold our 
breath as we listen; let us remember, 
too, that He is not speaking to excep- 
tional geniuses, but to the rank and file 
of imperfect men and women, living 
their daily lives amidst the turmoil and 
452 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

drudgery of existence, ' Ye shall be 
perfect, even as your Heavenly Father 
is perfect." The goal of human life is 
nothing less than the perfection of God. 
Thus He forever destroys the old false 
idea that God and man are essentially 
unlike. Then in the matchless parable 
of the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, 
He emphasizes as clearly as anything 
can be emphasized, the absolute oneness 
of God and man when He says, " Inas- 
much as ye have done anything to one 
of the least of these, ye have done it 
unto Me." Jesus identifies Himself 
with humanity. The Divine Life in 
Me, He would say, is in all men, so that 
when you minister to any one, even the 
least, it is the same as ministering to 
Me. 

In the interpretation of Christianity 

that we find in John's writings, the 

same idea is primary and central. In 

the Prologue to the Gospel he speaks 

453 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

of the "Logos," or "Word." It is 
John's term to describe the Divine na- 
ture revealed in human life, just as 
" Christ " is Paul's word. John says 
that the Logos is " the light that light- 
eth every man coming into the world." 
Men have not recognized it as such and 
have preferred darkness to light. But 
in Jesus we see the full consciousness of 
the Divine Life, and so John speaks of 
Him constantly as the Son of God. He 
uses three characteristic phrases: " To 
be of God," " born of God," and " be- 
gotten of God." They all mean the 
same thing, and are used to describe a 
higher type of life that " has received " 
God by an act of response to Him 
within. According to John the spirit- 
ual life is both received and won. God 
gives Himself freely because God is 
Love, which is only another way of say- 
ing that it is fundamental to His nature 
to give and share Himself. But while 
454 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

this is true, God cannot mechanically 
pour Himself into another spirit any 
more than we can pour truth from our 
minds into another mind. Truth is free, 
but Truth must be won. The indiffer- 
ent, sluggish mind is " heir of all the 
ages/' all that has been learned lies 
ready for him to receive. But such an 
one will die as ignorant as a baby, un- 
less some day he gains an insight into 
the worth of Truth, and then sets him- 
self earnestly to the task of making this 
free truth his own. So John points out 
that the successive spiritual " new 
births " must be " won " by each indi- 
vidual. The Divine Love and Life are 
free to all, but they must be seen and 
appreciated and made one's very own. 
God freely bestows, or freely " begets " 
within us the life divine, but we must be 
in the spiritual attitude of those who are 
strenuously eager and desirous of " re- 
ceiving " or entering into the conscious- 
455 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ness of the Divine Life. John always 
uses the words " Faith " or " Believe " 
to describe that inward activity of the 
entire Self that " closes the circuit of 
personal relationship " between the soul 
and God. It is the inner power that 
leads a man to launch himself boldly 
in the direction of the best he knows 
and the highest he sees, trusting 
his intuitional knowledge as "of 
God." 

John has another peculiar phrase for 
this process of appropriating the Divine 
Life: " Knowing Him." It is a voli- 
tional rather than an intellectual term. 
" He that willeth to do My will, shall 
know." " This is life eternal, to be 
coming to know Thee." This is clearly 
a life experience by which one " be- 
comes of God." To have Him, to see 
Him, to know Him, to abide in Him, 
to believe on Him, to love Him, are 
various aspects of one process that leads 
456 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

to " eternal life." John uses the figure 
of the Vine and the Branches to express 
the organic life of the Spirit. The vine 
would not be the vine without the 
branches, and the branches could not 
exist without the vine; the relation is 
an organic relation ; the life that is lived 
is a common, a shared life. The par- 
able tells of a vital Divine-human rela- 
tionship, not through the loss of indi- 
viduality, " but by entering consciously 
into a life, in which the margin fades 
forever and forever as we move." Just 
before Jesus leaves His disciples, He 
speaks of a " Comforter, who shall be 
in you; " the " Spirit of Truth," teach- 
ing, illuminating, inspiring, guiding 
continually into all Truth. It is noth- 
ing less than the modern conception of 
the ever-abiding, immanent, indwelling 
God. 

The climax of John's thought about 
this Divine - human relationship is 
457 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

reached in Christ's prayer for His disci- 
ples of all times; " that they all may be 
made one." Christ's own oneness with 
God is to be the standard or goal, — 
" one, even as we are one." This can- 
not mean one, in the sense of losing 
one's individuality, for no one has ever 
laid greater emphasis on the importance 
and worth of the individual; but one in 
moral purpose, in spiritual conscious- 
ness, in self -emptying love. "I in 
them, Thou in me, that they may be 
made perfect in one." 

So with John, as with Paul, the cen- 
tral fact of Christianity is the Divine- 
human relationship in the inner con- 
sciousness of man, fusing all powers 
and forces into one true and indivisible 
Personality. It is another glorious 
mystical circle. The Inlet is in the 
Ocean, and the Ocean is in the Inlet. 
So we live our lives in God, as He lives 
His life in us. 

458 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

Perhaps some are asking: what be- 
come of the doctrines of Sin and Salva- 
tion under this interpretation of Re- 
ligion? The old doctrines of original 
sin, of Adam's fall and total depravity 
no longer have the meaning for us that 
they possessed for our fathers, and yet 
the fact of sin, however it may be de- 
fined, remains. The entire process of 
the personal life involves choice, pref- 
erences, the taking of will-attitudes. 
The soul's destiny is not in the stars, or 
anywhere outside. It is in the individ- 
ual soul itself. This earthly life is just 
our chance of relating ourselves vitally 
and harmoniously with the Spiritual 
forces of the Universe. To turn away 
from spiritual goals, to prefer the nar- 
row, private, isolated self -kingdom to 
the larger Kingdom of God, to refuse 
to lose the restricted self in the con- 
sciousness of the larger Self — this is 
sin. Jesus always defines sin in terms 
459 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

of selfishness. The saint, or the un- 
selfish person, is the one who knows he 
is in God's world, and is glad to be in 
it and of it and make his life contribute 
to it. The sinner, or the selfish indi- 
vidual, is in God's world too, but he 
does not know it, and treats this Divine 
World as mere machinery to serve his 
individual ends. " Sin, then, springs 
out of freedom, and is an act of choice 
which tends to defeat the Divine pur- 
pose — but which really takes its place 
in the spiritual universe as a thing to be 
put down and triumphed over, much as 
the evil impulse has a place in the moral 
struggle of the good man, who con- 
quers it and so gains a new degree of 
goodness." 

Salvation, then, is the awakening to 
the consciousness that I am but a part 
of a larger Whole, and the seeking to 
relate myself vitally and harmoniously 
with the indwelling Divine Life. It is 
460 



THE DIVINE - HUMAN LIFE 

not something that has been done for 
us, it is the Divine life resident within 
us. But what place does Jesus play, 
then, in the salvation of men? Every 
friendship, every book, every sermon, 
every lecture, every experience, every 
picture, the inspiring music I hear, in 
just the degree that it shames me for 
my littleness, lifts me out of my selfish- 
ness, reveals to me my possibilities as a 
personality in the world, and opens up 
before me new paths of attainment, be- 
comes a savior to me. But the might- 
iest force in the world and the most 
powerful influence in our lives, is not 
the power of books, or sermons, or 
music, or art; it is rather the power of 
the living Personality, who has found 
the truth, blended it into unity and is 
living it forth daily in symmetrical 
character and beautiful conduct. And 
there is no one of us who does not owe 
the supremest debt of life to some one 
461 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

or more luminous personalities whose 
pathways have crossed ours. 

But where do we turn for the supreme 
Personality of history? Where do we 
find the completion of Personality, but 
in Him Whom the world has acknowl- 
edged to be the best and the highest we 
know? The Personality of Jesus looms 
larger and clearer with the passing of 
the centuries, as the old dogmas that 
concealed the real Jesus disappear. 
Simply because the power of all pow- 
ers in human life is the power of per- 
sonality we turn instinctively for our 
chief inspiration, to the greatest Person 
of the Ages. His power rests not sim- 
ply in what He did or what He taught ; 
but rather in what He was in Himself; 
He lived " the life that is life indeed." 
He, as no other teacher, or friend, has 
revealed to man his possibilities, has 
lifted man out of his selfishness, has 
enabled him to have faith in himself as 
462 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

well as in God, has revealed to him that 
the Divine does reside in the human, 
and has opened up to every man new 
paths to the attainment of Personality. 
And when we see Him not only living, 
but finally dying that heroic death on 
Calvary, and remember that He died 
for the sake of the truth He uttered, 
and because of unswerving loyalty to 
that truth, and when we realize that 
all the unselfishness and heroism of that 
death was simply the culmination of a 
life of unselfishness and love, we begin 
to see more clearly what it means to live 
out the Divine life that dwells in us 
even as in Him, and how one day we 
too may reach the great goal of the per- 
fected Personality. 

The age-long conflict is not between 
Science and Religion; it is rather be- 
tween a too narrow Science and an in- 
adequate Theology. Spiritual religion 
as voiced by Jesus, and as interpreted 
463 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

by the mystics of all the centuries, has 
no conflict with a Science that takes all 
the facts of man's nature into account. 
Modern psychology is helping us to 
understand man, to realize the signifi- 
cance of his complex powers, and to 
interpret the meaning of his inner ex- 
periences. In its conception of Person- 
ality as the goal of Evolution, it points 
the way to a conscious union of the in- 
dividual self with the Larger Self of 
the Universe, as the end of being. But 
what is this if not, in terms of religion, 
the blending of the Divine and human 
in the one, indivisible consciousness of 
the symmetrical Personality, as we see 
it revealed in Jesus, and as He saw it 
potential in all men. We are fast ap- 
proaching the time when Theology will 
be truly scientific, and when Science 
will be truly religious. For, ultimately, 
Science and Religion must work to- 
gether in perfect harmony. 
464 



THE DIVINE -HUMAN LIFE 

The time has not yet come for writ- 
ing the new theology. The returns 
from psychology and sociology, on 
which it will depend, are not all in as 
yet. The most that any one can do to- 
day, is to blaze a path along which the 
finished road may be built some time in 
the future. But whatever form the 
theology of the future may take, this 
much is clear: The Religion of the fu- 
ture is to be a Spiritual Religion, and 
at the heart of every doctrine that may 
be formulated, will shine out more 
clearly than ever before this profound 
truth: Religion is God living His life 
through men, and men living their lives 
in God. 



465 




THE PERMANENCE OF 
PERSONALITY 

HE supreme question that con- 
cerns us, after all, is the per- 
sonal question. What is the 
final worth of our human Per- 
sonality in the great onward movement 
of nature? Is our self -consciousness 
only a passing reflection of nature, the 
mirror itself being perishable, and the 
image falling upon it appearing but for 
a moment, and vanishing as quickly as 
it appeared ? Or, is our personal life na- 
ture's dramatic climax, and in its worth 
has something been gained of immortal 
value? It is the old, old question that 
has been voiced for Ages, " If a man 
die, shall he live again? " 
466 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

There are many different arguments 
for immortality which might be pursued 
with profit but, as we come to the close 
of this discussion, let us think especially 
of the argument that grows out of the 
fact of Personality, with all its won- 
drous implications. One of the clearest 
marks of personality is found in the will- 
to-live. A being without this will-to-live 
is lacking in one of the first essentials 
of personality. The farther down the 
scale of life we go, the less apparent is 
this will-to-live, though it is always 
present; but the higher we ascend, the 
more clearly does it find expression; 
and the stronger and cleaner-cut the 
personality, the more intense becomes 
the will-to-live. 

As we have seen, egoism consists of 
the profound reverence for the worth of 
one's true Self, while egotism is the 
absorption in one's little self. Thus 
egoism, combined with faith, constitutes 
467 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

the mental dynamic of the Individual. 
It is to the soul what the instinct of 
self-preservation is to the body. While 
it has heretofore been regarded as ab- 
normal, egoism is now seen to be that 
high degree of " self-respect " which 
alone renders a continued existence in 
a future life possible. Egoism is the 
one chief element of potency in per- 
sonality, that expends its greatest 
energy in an effort to retain its self- 
consciousness independently of physical 
conditions. The more profoundly and 
intelligently one comes to reverence 
one's true self, the more impossible does 
it become to think of that Self as ceasing 
to exist. 

We have already pointed out how the 
movement of Nature's evolutionary 
process is steadily in the direction of 
the development of Personality. At the 
present summit of it, the individual man 
stands out as its supreme form, and with 
468 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

his face uplifted toward some radiant 
beyond. But how did the individual 
existence come to be discriminated from 
the universal flow of energy in nature? 
Let us briefly review the successive 
steps in the separation of the individual 
from the mass, for the sake of seeing 
clearly how strong is the emphasis that 
Nature has placed from the beginning 
upon the supreme worth of the 
Individual. 

The first far-away step toward in- 
dividuality is to be discerned in the 
appearance, one after another, of the 
separate elements which are now dis- 
tinguished in our Physics. It used to 
be supposed that these elements were 
all created in the beginning as distinct 
things, but our physical science is now 
in close pursuit of some one original 
form of matter from which the elements 
themselves may have been derived. 
They are observed to arrange them- 
469 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

selves in certain groups, and to have 
relations to each other which suggest 
some common origin. According to 
our present speculative Physics, Nature 
in its distant beginnings was one, and 
not many. It w T as uniformity, not 
variety. Yet this One becomes the 
mother of the many. In this vast and 
uniform mass there lay the potential 
individuals; nay! there was already 
stirring some principle of diversifica- 
tion, some inherent and primal tend- 
ency towards distinctions which finally 
led to fixed and permanent distinct 
forms. The appearance of one separate 
distinct thing, whether it were a vortex- 
ring or an atom of hydrogen, marks an 
initial step in the long way towards in- 
dividuality. It was a step which, once 
taken, could never be retraced. Vastly 
more was to follow from it than could 
have been foreseen, save by the Om- 
niscience which knows the end from the 
470 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

beginning. Yet finite intelligence, now 
looking back, can see what mighty re- 
sults have come of it. 

Another definite gain in the process 
of individualization was made when a 
crystal was formed. In the crystal, 
clear integrity of form has been defi- 
nitely won, for the same substance in 
solidifying always crystallizes according 
to certain fixed laws. Crystallization 
may be regarded as an announcement 
in nature of the future coming of the 
kingdom of individuality. It prepares 
the way in the wilderness of matter for 
something greater than itself. The 
first crystalline acquisition in nature of 
varied yet symmetrical structure, per- 
manently fashioned, was indeed a pro- 
phetic gain. In the whole inorganic 
realm there is nothing more individual, 
nothing having more distinctive charac- 
ter of its own than the diamond, but a 
new start must be made. Nature must 
471 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

go beyond star-dust and snow-flakes 
and diamonds, if it is to press on toward 
individuality as the goal of its high 
calling. 

The next wondrous step beyond the 
crystals toward individuality, was made 
through the organization of matter in 
the living cell. That " nursling of 
time," as it has been called, is so obscure 
in its origin that no science can tell 
when or where it had its birth, nor in 
w T hat environment it was cradled. 
" Life, so far as we may trace its de- 
scent, is like Melchizedek, without 
father or mother, save as it proceeds 
direct from the immanent life of the 
Infinite." The cell is a unity, just as 
a crystal is one clear thing. It has defi- 
nite form and its own structure, just as 
has a diamond or a star. But it has 
gained other properties which mark a 
higher degree of individualization. It 
can maintain itself even in the midst 
472 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

of change. While the matter of it 
changes, it abides. It possesses two 
great functions, viz., nutrition and re- 
production. It can renew and perpet- 
uate itself. It can also reproduce its 
kind. Each different kind of cell has 
somehow acquired the power of select- 
ing its own food, and of rejecting or 
leaving untouched matter that it can- 
not use for its own maintenance. This 
inner, self-selective and self-maintain- 
ing life of the cell marks a new kind of 
individuality. But the mother-cell di- 
vides itself into two daughter-cells. 
Life thus multiplies itself by means of 
itself. If the coming of the crystal was 
wonderful, the advent of self -producing 
life in the cell is nothing less than glo- 
rious, for it is a herald of the world to 
come in which the Person shall stand 
supreme. 

The next great gain in the acquisition 
of individuality comes with the appear- 
473 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

ance of animal intelligence, viz., in the 
sentient power of using something else 
for one's self. The lowest animal ren- 
ders the vegetable realm subordinate to 
itself. Not only in the animal kingdom 
does life maintain and reproduce itself 
blindly, as it seems to do in the plant 
world; but this further power has been 
won of putting a whole order beneath 
it and making it serve itself. Irrita- 
bility, or the power to receive and to 
react under stimulation, is the primal 
property of all living matter. But in 
the animal order this general sensitive- 
ness becomes specialized; it is carried 
further and made more of, as animal life 
ascends into that highly organized kind 
of sensitiveness which we recognize as 
animal intelligence. Physiologically, it 
is determined by the complex nervous 
system with its localized centers of re- 
action from within to stimuli from with- 
out. Moved by this stirring of its own 
474 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

life and the feeling of its own value, the 
animal seeks to maintain its existence in 
the fierce struggle, by pursuit or by 
flight; and this it does not simply for 
the sake of the preservation of the 
species but for the preservation of itself. 
Nature clearly gives to the higher ani- 
mals more and more pronounced indi- 
vidual values. 

But the supreme step in the process 
of individualization is marked by the 
entrance of the self-conscious being. 
This gain is so immense that it has 
seemed to many to have been an en- 
tirely new beginning, rather than the 
climax of the whole process of evolution 
before it. It is a far cry from primitive 
man to the fully developed Personality, 
but nevertheless, the first faint begin- 
nings of personality are to be discerned 
in the emergence of self-consciousness 
and its accompanying new sense of per- 
sonal worth. For ages the mightiest 
475 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

power in the life of primitive man was 
muscle; then there came the time when 
the mightiest power was cunning that 
could outwit muscle; then the time of 
the higher form of intellect, superior to 
both muscle and cunning; then the be- 
ginnings of love and conscience, which 
were mightier still; until to-day, as 
mind, heart, will and the moral nature 
have developed, we recognize that the 
mightiest power on the face of the 
earth is the power of the moral and 
spiritual character. Or, in other words, 
through all the ages, since man first 
made his appearance, the self-conscious 
individual has been steadily growing 
into the true and symmetrical Person- 
ality, the master of all his wondrous 
powers, who has learned how to use 
them not for selfish ends but for the 
sake of enriching the life of the Whole. 
This brief survey of the evolutionary 
process is not mere poetry, it is literal 
476 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

scientific fact. Nature's chief concern 
has been the evolving of new and con- 
stant^ higher types of the individual, 
and all that we mean by Personality at 
its highest and best, in which the divine 
and human are blended into one, con- 
stitutes the ultimate goal of evolution. 

Keeping in mind this great end for 
which Nature has been working from 
the beginning, let us recall the two 
fundamental axioms, upon which all 
Science bases its investigations, viz., the 
Indestructibility of Matter and the 
Conservation of Energy. What do we 
mean by the Indestructibility of Mat- 
ter? Apparently, to our senses, matter 
can be destroyed. But our senses con- 
stantly deceive us. The piece of coal 
that you put on the fire disappears from 
view as it is consumed, and yet we know 
that not a single atom of the matter 
that went into the composition of the 
coal has been destroyed. Matter can no 
477 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

more be annihilated than it can be cre- 
ated; the only thing that is destroyed 
is the form that matter may take. A 
crowd gathers in the street. You see 
it now as a crowd. In a few moments 
it has dispersed. It never will be the 
same crowd again. And yet not a sin- 
gle individual of the crowd has really 
been annihilated; it is only the special 
aggregation of individuals that has dis- 
appeared ; it is the form, not the reality 
of the crowd that is lost. The cloud 
forms in the sky over your head, and 
after a few hours of sunshine, disap- 
pears; it dies, it is gone forever. Yet 
we know that not a single drop of the 
moisture that went to make up the cloud 
has really gone out of existence, it is 
only the particular form of the cloud 
that is lost. Science knows that when 
things vanish they are only hidden un- 
der new forms. Never does the scien- 
tist surmise for a moment that some- 
478 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

thing suddenly springs into being from 
previous non-existence. All that we 
perceive can be accounted for by 
changes of aggregation, by assemblage 
and dispersion. Of material aggregates 
we can trace the history; we can say 
whence thej r arose and what they be- 
come; but never do we state that they 
will vanish into nothingness, any more 
than we conjecture that they arose from 
nothing. 

In point of fact, matter has no sta- 
bility, no identity. It is constantly 
changing. This earth of ours, and 
everything within it and upon it, is in a 
state of perpetual flux. The appear- 
ance of material objects may be identi- 
cal but their substance is forever being 
changed. It is the same with the hu- 
man body. The changes, though less 
perceptible, are every bit as real. An 
average adult man weighs 140 pounds. 
Of this amount there are nearly 104 
479 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

pounds of water in the blood and flesh. 
Analyze the substance of the body and 
you will find albumen, fibrine, caseine, 
and gelatine; that is, organic sub- 
stances composed originally of the four 
essential gases, oxygen, nitrogen, hy- 
drogen and carbonic acid. Gum, sugar, 
starch, etc., are exhaled during respira- 
tion, under the form of carbonic acid 
and water. But water is a combination 
of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen; 
the air is a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen 
and water. Thus our bodies are com- 
posed only of transformed gases. " In 
a few months (not in seven years, as 
was formerly supposed) our body is 
entirely renewed. None of the flesh of 
our body existed six months ago; the 
shoulders, face, eyes, mouth, arms, the 
hair — all of our organism is but a cur- 
rent of molecules, a ceaselessly renewed 
flame, a river which we may look upon 
all of our lives but never see the same 
480 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

water again. It is all nothing but as- 
similated gas condensed and modified, 
and more than anything else it is air. 
Our whole body is composed of invisi- 
ble molecules which do not touch each 
other and which are continually re- 
newed." All that science admits, is 
change. Birth is change, nourishment 
is change, death is change. The process 
of change is the process of life. As long 
as we live we are continually shedding 
our material organisms. But amidst all 
the changes in the form of matter, 
Science affirms that the essence of mat- 
ter is absolutely indestructible. If mat- 
ter be but " a mode of motion," then 
motion, or force is eternal. 

The same statements apply to the 
second axiom of Science, the Conserva- 
tion of Energy. Take any of the great 
physical forces of the universe, like heat, 
light or electricity, and these are but 
different forms of expression of one un- 
481 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

derlying Force. The forms change — 
but you can neither create nor destroy a 
single particle of the essential force 
displayed. 

The following are the main induc- 
tions which Science bases upon its study 
of nature: The visible, tangible, pon- 
derable, and constantly moving uni- 
verse, is composed of invisible, intangi- 
ble, inponderable and inert atoms. 
These atoms are governed by Force, to 
constitute bodies and to organize beings. 
Force, therefore, is essential entity, be- 
ing, God. The Visible Universe is com- 
posed of invisible bodies. What we see 
is made up of things which are not seen. 
What we call " matter," vanishes when 
scientific analysis seeks to grasp it. But 
we find as the support of the universe 
and the origin of all forms, Force — 
the great dynamic element. It is not 
true then that Science recognizes no 
immortality. In most explicit terms, it 
482 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

asserts that Force, or the ultimate 
reality underlying all forms of matter, 
is eternal. It is not necessary for our 
purpose, to ask how this Ultimate 
Force of the Universe is to be defined 
— whether or not in terms of life, of 
mind or of will? It is enough to know 
that it has been scientifically proven 
that no really existing thing in its true 
essence ever perishes, but only changes 
its outward form. 

What, now, of that highest of all 
Forces with which Science deals — the 
Life force? Science cannot accurately 
define life, but it knows what life does. 
Call it the Life Principle, the Soul, the 
Ego — the name matters little. It is 
Something within that tiny micro- 
scopic cell that begins building, and 
does not cease until it has completed the 
wonderfully complex, harmoniously 
working and perfect human body. It 
groups the atoms which suit it and elim- 
483 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

inates those which are useless to it. It 
organizes, it correlates, it controls, it 
guides, it keeps intact for 30, 50, or 80 
years these millions upon millions of 
constantly moving molecules of matter. 
It is no wonder that John Fiske calls 
this Life Principle, or the Soul, " an 
emanation from God," so God-like is 
the task it performs. Is it conceivable 
that this wondrous Life force is less 
" real," than the physical forces which 
Science admits to be eternal? Does it 
not rather seem conclusive that what we 
call Life force, is the highest expression 
of Force in the Universe, and therefore, 
most sure of immortality? If the 
" essence of things " is indestructible, 
then surely the essence of the transitory 
human body, or the " Soul," must be 
indestructible. 

But while we admit that the Life 
force may be permanent, we remember 
that the individuality of the Soul, or 
484 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

Personality, is recent in the world's his- 
tory. Our planet was nebula, then sun, 
after that chaos. Life began with the 
most rudimentary organism. It has 
progressed century by century to attain 
its present state, which is not the last. 
What we call the faculties of the soul, 
intelligence, reason, conscience — are 
comparatively modern. The mind has 
been only slowly freeing itself from the 
dominion of matter. The achievement 
of Personality has but recently begun. 
Are these faculties of the soul, unified 
in a self-conscious Personality, akin to 
the temporary groupings which shall be 
dissolved, or are they among the sub- 
stantial realities that shall endure the 
shock of time? If all that "really 
exists," in the highest sense, is im- 
mortal, we have only to ask whether our 
personality, our character, our true Self 
is sufficiently individual, sufficiently 
characteristic, sufficiently developed, — 
485 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

in a word, sufficiently real; for if it is, 
there can then be not the slightest doubt 
of its continuance. It may return, in 
some sense, to the Central Reality, but 
not without identity; its individual 
character will be preserved. 

But Science throws still further light 
upon our problem. Professor Hoffding, 
of Copenhagen, formulates another 
axiom of Science that he calls the 
" Conservation of Value." In his view 
as a philosopher, he agrees with Brown- 
ing and many other great seers, that no 
real Value or Good is ever lost. The 
whole progress and course of evolution 
is to increase and intensify the Valuable 
— that which " avails " or is service- 
able for highest purposes, — and it does 
so by bringing out that which was po- 
tential or latent, so as to make it actual 
and real. Real it was, no doubt, all the 
time in some sense, as an oak is implicit 
in an acorn or a flower in a bud, but in 
486 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

process of time it unfolds and adds to 
the realized Value of the Universe. 
This is only a higher application of Dar- 
win's principle, the survival of the fit- 
test. In the lower realms of life before 
self-consciousness appears, it is the 
" strongest " individual which survives; 
i. e., strongest in body and muscle. But 
with the coming of man, Nature turns 
her attention away from the further 
development of the physical body, and 
centers her whole interest on the de- 
velopment of the mental, the moral, the 
spiritual, the psychic nature of the in- 
dividual, thus revealing more and more 
clearly the possibilities of personality. 
Higher forces than brute strength are 
henceforth to determine what is " fit- 
test " to survive. 

The complex and perfect human body 
is apparently Nature's last word in 
physical development, and she is deter- 
mined to preserve that through the con- 
487 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

tinuance of the species. But only the 
first wonderful words in the unfolding 
of man's spiritual and psychic nature 
have as yet been spoken, and the pos- 
sibilities are practically infinite. With 
this view of Nature's emphasis upon the 
Valuable, Immortality may be defined 
as the persistence of the essential and 
the real; it applies to things which the 
universe has gained — things which, 
once acquired, cannot be let go. Im- 
mortality for any thing is the result of 
nature's (i. e. God's) law of the Con- 
servation of Value. The tendency of 
Evolution is to increase the actuality of 
Value, converting it from a potential 
into an available form. 

Now, remembering that Nature's ob- 
ject throughout the entire evolutionary 
process is the development of a con- 
stantly higher type of Personality, and 
since Matter and Energy neither in- 
crease nor decrease but only change in 
488 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

form, and since Life too is probably 
constant in quantity, though alterna- 
ting into and out of incarnation accord- 
ing as material organisms are put to- 
gether or worn out, is it conceivable 
that the highest type of existence we 
know — thought, love and will bound 
together in self-conscious unity — can 
do aught else but steadily increase unto 
that perfect day? To believe that true 
Personality is not permanently " valu- 
able," is to make of the Universe an 
imbecile, driveling farce, and to re- 
gard the whole stupendous process of 
Evolution as a meaningless and utter 
failure. 

The real question then, is not " If a 
man die, shall he live again? " but 
rather, " If a man die, does he deserve 
to live again? " The supreme personal 
question is not, "Am I immortal?" 
but, " Am I worthy of immortality? " 
Have I achieved in my personality that 
489 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

which is of sufficient value to the Uni- 
verse to justify immortality for me? 
Am I sufficiently " real," in the sense 
that my life in its inner consciousness 
has blended and become one with the 
Infinite Life — the only great Reality ? 
Is my personality sufficiently developed 
in the True and the Good, so that it 
possesses in itself the power to " leap 
the gulf? " Is my Self -consciousness 
sufficiently strong and intense, and 
enough in harmony with the Universal 
Consciousness, so that it can survive the 
dissolution of my body in death? Am I 
body, " having " only a faint semblance 
of " soul," or am I the strong, self- 
conscious Personality, merely " hav- 
ing " the body? Man makes his own 
destiny. He rises or falls in accordance 
with his own works. Philosophy has 
long since demonstrated immortality. 
Science has never proven it untrue, and 
to-day is finding it more and more rea- 
490 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

sonable. It remains only for the indi- 
vidual to demonstrate within himself his 
worthiness of immortality. 

In Ibsen's drama, " Peer Gynt," the 
theme is the same which we have been 
considering: What is it to be one's self? 
What is it to find one's self? What, 
after all, is the true Personality? As, 
step by step, we follow this capricious 
creature through his kaleidoscopic 
career, we see him in all his deep-seated 
selfishness, his cynical indifference to 
higher things, his superstitious and 
often revolting religion, his insincerity, 
his compromise, his treachery, his de- 
ceitfulness, his lust. More than once 
he catches a vision of something higher, 
nobler, purer; but his better self turns 
from the vision and submits itself again 
to degradation as he continues his down- 
ward course. Near the close of the 
drama he meets the button-moulder 
with his large casting-ladle. He insists 
491 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

that he must have the soul of Peer Gynt 
to melt in his ladle, in order to make of 
the raw material new and better souls. 
Peer Gynt resists this destruction of 
himself with all his might. He tries to 
show that he has always been his true 
self. But little by little, the button- 
moulder shows him that not only God's 
Peer Gynt but the devil's Peer Gynt 
also, is washed out. There has ceased 
to be anything decisive or individual 
even in his sins, and so he must go into 
the melting pot. At last he begins to 
see that in truth he is no one, and this 
very recognition is the first step on a 
better way. But he begs for a respite, 
just a little time in which to discover 
somewhere his lost self, if possible. 
The button-moulder finally consents, 
but adds, " Nevertheless, we'll meet at 
the next cross-roads, Peer Gynt." As 
he proceeds on his search Peer Gynt 
meets Solve jg, the one woman who has 
492 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

truly loved the real Self in him all these 
years, and has been waiting in confi- 
dence for his return. And he cries out: 
" Can you tell me where Peer Gynt has 
been since we parted? Where has he 
been with the mark of his destiny upon 
his brow? Been, as he sprang from 
God's thought? Where have I been as 
myself? Whole and true? Where have 
I been with God's stamp on my brow? " 
And Solve jg replies, softly and smiling, 
— " In my faith, in my hope, and in my 
love." 

It was this pure and sacrificial love, 
incarnate in a woman's heart, which was 
leading him on o'er land and sea, o'er 
crag and torrent, through his sins — 
and perhaps also through the penalty 
for those sins in the melting spoon 
of the moulder, — leading him back 
to light, to love, to his true Self in 
God. 

This is the personal question: Am I 
493 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

my true Self? Am I daily realizing the 
Self that sprang from God's Thought? 
If not, let me remember that my true, 
my ideal Self does exist, has always ex- 
isted in God's faith and hope and love 
for me, and I may make it real, if I will. 
In just the degree that I do become my 
real Self am I sure of immortality, for 
all " real " things are eternal. It is not 
a question of heaven or hell, it is not a 
question of future reward or punish- 
ment ; if we take Nature as our teacher, 
we learn that her chief concern is for 
the perfected Personality, and the prob- 
lem of immortality becomes for each 
one of us, simply the question as to 
how far we have gone in the achieve- 
ment of true Personality. Our strug- 
gle for Personality does not stand alone. 
As Myers says in " Human Personal- 
ity," — " Perhaps in this complex of 
interpenetrating spirits our own effort 
is no individual, no transitory thing. 
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PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

That which lies at the root of each of 
us, lies at the root of the Cosmos too. 
Our struggle is the struggle of the uni- 
verse itself ; and the very Godhead finds 
fulfillment through our upward-striving 
souls." 

In my judgment, the real and final 
evidence for a future continuance of 
Personality is to be found along the line 
of psychical research. We need to re- 
member that it is modern psychology 
which has made possible the work both 
of the English and the American Socie- 
ties of Psychical Research. The work 
of these investigators, in Mr. Glad- 
stone's opinion, expressed shortly be- 
fore his death, is " the most important 
work that is being done in the world." 
These Societies enroll in their member- 
ships many of the greatest minds in this 
country and abroad, who are convinced 
that it is in the further study of Per- 
sonality, as we get deeper into the sig- 
495 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

nificance and meaning of these complex 
forces of personal life, that the scientific 
evidence is to be found for the existence 
of personality beyond the grave. The 
phenomena of telepathy, of clairvoy- 
ance, of clairaudience, of automatism, 
have all been scientifically demon- 
strated, according to Professor James. 
The arguments from praeternormal 
psychology, from mental pathology, 
from genius, from the sub-conscious 
faculties carry a stronger conviction 
from year to year as new facts are dis- 
closed. These genuine phenomena with 
which Psychical Research deals may be 
interpreted in one of two ways : Either 
they are due to the working of the sub- 
conscious mind, or some form of mental 
power with which psychology is not yet 
familiar; or else they are the results of 
the activity of disembodied intelligences. 
If the latter view prove to be correct, 
they furnish the absolute demonstration 
496 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

of the existence of personality apart 
from the body. It is very interesting 
to note that during the last few years, 
one after another of these investigators 
whose reputations are assured in the 
scientific world, have been passing over 
from the first view to the second, where- 
as at the outset they confess themselves 
to have been either disbelievers or 
agnostic regarding immortality. It is 
the scientific evidence alone, accumu- 
lated through a period of many years, 
that has brought conviction to these 
minds. 

We cannot but feel that as these in- 
vestigations are continued in the purely 
scientific spirit, there will at length 
shine upon this old earth of ours, not 
merely the light of faith or of belief or 
of hope or of desire, but the clearer 
light of definite knowledge, and we 
shall know beyond the shadow of a 
doubt and apart from all considerations 
497 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

of religion, that death is never annihi- 
lation but only change of outer form; 
and that this self-conscious Personality 
that we have been seeking to develop, 
is able to survive the shock of time, and 
leap the gulf, and continue its life under 
more spiritual conditions. 

This much, at least, grows clear, that 
whatever else may be involved in the 
life beyond, we must begin there just 
where we leave off here. There is no 
sudden change in one's " self." We are 
not, in some miraculous way, trans- 
formed into either saints or demons. 
Life there, must be the continuation of 
the life here; and when we awaken 
after the sleep of death, it will be to 
find ourselves just what we were when 
we closed our eyes here, no better and 
no worse. So that if we pass into the 
clearer light beyond, with a personality 
mean and small and stunted and un- 
developed and only approaching faintly 
498 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

to the reality, possible to every indi- 
vidual, we must begin the life there, as 
a mean and stunted and undeveloped 
being. The lessons we do not learn 
here, rest assured we shall have to learn 
there; the progress that we fail to 
make here, we will have to make there; 
the inner growth that we do not allow 
now, because of our absorption in other 
things, we shall, in some way, under 
some conditions, be obliged to experi- 
ence before we can ever reach the high- 
est to which we aspire. 

In the light of modern philosophy 
and science, as well as in the more rea- 
sonable faith of religion to-day, our 
chief concern should not be whether we 
are to carry self-consciousness through 
the shadows of Death, but rather, what 
degree of Self-consciousness will we 
take with us when we leave these 
familiar scenes? Shall it be the clear 
consciousness of the full-fledged and 
499 



THE CULTURE OF PERSONALITY 

symmetrical Personality, or shall it be 
the faint consciousness of one who has 
only begun to take the first faltering 
steps in the direction of true manhood 
and womanhood? The greatest thing in 
the universe, next to God, is human life, 
and the greatest thing in human life is 
the fully developed Personality, and 
the developed Personality is the one in 
whom the Divine and the human are 
blended in conscious unity. And to be 
thus one with God is to be conscious, 
here and now, of the Life that knows no 
end. 

" The one life thrilled the star-dust through 
In nebulous masses whirled, 
Until, globed like a drop of dew, 
Shone out a new-made world. 

The one life on the ocean shore, 
Through primal ooze and slime, 
Crept slowly on from more to more 
Along the ways of time. 
500 



PERMANENCE OF PERSONALITY 

The one life in the jungles old, 
From lowly, creeping things, 
Did ever some new form unfold — 
Swift feet or soaring wings. 

The one life all the ages through 
Pursued its wondrous plan, 
Till, as the tree of promise grew, 
It blossomed into Man. 

The one life reach eth onward still: 
Some day our eyes will see 
The far-off fact our dreams fulfill, 
Of glory yet to be." 



THE END. 



501 



SEP 23 1912 



